The month of July is coming to a close and that can only mean one thing: my focus starts shifting to fantasy football. I will try and get some posts out related to that subject so I might miss a couple days of the ol' Pocket Pair. It was a busy weekend with my family in town for mom's retirement after 38 fun filled years with the government. If you had a busy weekend as well, let me catch you up with what you missed.
5. Baseball Trading Deadline
Zack Greinke was most certainly dealt as he wound up on the west coast with the Angels. He lost in his first start with them getting out dueled by Jeremy Hellickson and the Tampa Bay Rays. Also traded this weekend was lefty pitcher Francisco Liriano who gained 12.5 games in the A.L. Central when he was shipped from Minnesota to the Chicago White Sox. The White Sox have been, by far, the most active trading partner so far as they have acquired Kevin Youkilis and Brett Myers in addition to Liriano already. Chris Johnson and George Kottaras were a couple smaller named players to move as well. Today and tomorrow will be where the deadline definitely ramps up as we find out if Philadelphia unloads their aging roster, if the Marlins have yet another fire sale, if division leaders stand pat or go for it and if a blockbuster is in the works.
4. Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees
After losing on Friday night, the Boston Red Sox took the final two games of the series, not only pushing their record back to .500, but also stayed within arms reach of the Wild Card. The pressure was really on after getting thumped in game 1 and having to face C.C. Sabathia on Saturday, but the Sox struck early and often against the big lefty tagging him for 6 runs in 6 innings. In each of the two wins for Boston they blew leads and had to salvage the games late in the game on the road. Will they be able to build off of this or will this just be another blip on a very uneven year to date? The Yankees appear to be cruise control mode as they are 3-7 in their last 10 games after starting the second half of the season 5-1. They still have a very comfortable 7.5 game lead to play with and nobody else in the A.L. East seems good enough to challenge them.
3. Chicago White Sox at Texas Rangers
I admit, it looks like I called the race in the A.L. Central for the Detroit Tigers a wee bit early. Not only did the Tigers have a poor 2-4 week, but the White Sox nearly swept their week going 5-1 losing only on Sunday. They have reestablished their 1.5 game lead over Detroit and now get to play Minnesota again whom they just swept. The Texas Rangers are not playing well. It all starts with Josh Hamilton who is mired in a deep slump and he seems to be bringing the entire team down with him. He was 0-6 in his two games this weekend against the White Sox and was benched on Saturday. I don't want to build up the 4 game series this week against the Angels as do or die, but if Los Angeles comes in and takes 3 of 4 or all 4, it could mark the end of a very strong two year run for the Rangers. They have played a lot of games in the last 2+ years, the heat in Texas will not subside and maybe it's beginning to take a toll on the roster.
2. Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco Giants
It looks like the Giants will need to make a move to keep pace with the Dodgers after what happened this weekend. Los Angeles waltzed into San Francisco and swept the Giants to create a deadlock atop the N.L. West standings. The Giants mustered only 3 runs in the 28 innings that were played and were shut out in the last two games of the series. Hanley Ramirez was 4-15 with a home run, 3 runs scored and 6 RBI in the series. If that doesn't force the Giants hand, I don't know what will. I was slightly wrong as the finale of the series went 3:03, just slightly longer than The Dark Knight Rises.
1. The Summer Olympics
I'm a bit disappointed because I had DVR issues and missed the opening ceremonies. Twitter kept me up to date about flying monkeys, sperm shaped objects flying through the air and David Beckham on a jet boat. It sounds like a good time was had by all. As for the Games themselves so far so good...save for the crappy tape delay in America. I understand NBC is in a lose/lose situation with the Olympics in Europe. NBC has decided to not show any live swimming medal events...none. They know its their biggest draw in prime time viewing so Americans have two choices: 1) avoid social media and watch the events on tape delay 2) stream the events online or check in with social media for the results. It will be too hard to stay off Twitter for two weeks or not go to ESPN.com or a similar sports site, so I choose to watch live as much as I can. Luckily my work will allow for this, but there are plenty of people who don't get that choice.
Outside of swimming the Twitter world seems to be in love with Archery, Handball and watching the US win at Basketball and Women's Soccer. Cycling is still boring, I saw the Chinese look terrible in Gymnastics, American Kim Rhode won a medal in her 5th straight Olympics and the Australian women wore their bikini tops over a shirt in Beach Volleyball.
That's 3 days down and we've just scraped the surface of what will occur. Live or not, the Olympics are fun to watch and I plan on seeing my fair share over the next two weeks.
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There's probably nothing more enjoyable than a really good M. Night Shyamalan movie. Unfortunately there's probably nothing less enjoyable than a really badd M. Night Shyamalan movie. He's had both. I watched Signs last night for the first time in forever and outside of the gimmicky solution to the problem, I enjoy it from beginning to end. He paces it so well and leaves enough to the imagination that the viewer can feel the same fright as the characters do. This is where he excels in his great films (The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable) being the other two, struggles at time in the average one (The Village) and fails for the most part in the misfires (The Happening and Lady in the Water).
I know that it was all about the big plot twist at the end after The Sixth Sense came out, but it was more than that. The acting by the children made the films. Haley Joel Osment was spectacular, Spence Treat Clark was very engaging and both the children in Signs (Rory Culkin and Abigail Breslin) stole the show at times. Not to mention that the last two will probably be acting for a very long time if they don't go crazy as they have both proven to be very talented.
This is why I have high hopes for his next project, After Earth, which will release summer of 2013. Not only does it star one of my favorite actors Will Smith, but his son Jaden (Karate Kid) and fellow child actor Isabelle Fuhrman (The Orphan). Fuhrman had a very difficult character to portray in The Orphan and because of her talent kept the movie from being laughable. She was extremely strong and drew me in to the very twisted story line. The remake of The Karate Kid was lauded by critics and audiences, thanks in large part to Jaden Smith. He lights up the screen just like his father and that's what attracts people to his films.
Hopefully this can be a redemption movie for Shyamalan because after the disastrous The Last Airbender, I don't know if he can handle another box office failure. I want him to get back to creepy ghost stories that aren't too complicated but keep the viewers on the edges of their seat and hopefully come with a satisfying ending. It sounds all too simple, but obviously Shyamalan has lost his edge with his recent releases.
Monday, July 30, 2012
Friday, July 27, 2012
Pocket Pair 7/27/12
Another work week down, another weekend to watch sports. Training camps have started for most of the NFL this week and that can only mean one thing...preseason football is a mere two weeks away. If only there was something to keep our attention during that time span.
Let's get right to it...your limited weekend viewing guide:
5: Baseball Trading Deadline
I'm cheating a little bit here because the deadline isn't officially until Tuesday, but seeing as this is the final weekend for your favorite team to prove they're a buyer or a seller. Hopefully there are a couple of trades this weekend to tide us over. We've already seen Hanley Ramirez and Ichiro traded and yesterday the Brewers announced that pitcher Zack Greinke will most certainly be traded. Because of the 2nd Wild Card there is fear that more teams will avoid selling off key pieces and just stand pat. It will be interesting
to see if there is more or less activity than usual.
4: Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees
Just because I won't be watching this, doesn't mean the rest of America won't be suckered into it. Doesn't this feel like a last stand for Boston? They are in dead last place in the A.L. East at 10.5 behind their bitter rival and 4.5 games out of the Wild Card, but the caveat is that seven teams are ahead of them. They cannot afford to get bludgeoned this weekend and fall further behind. The Yankees had a bad weekend out west and then lost ARod for six weeks with a broken hand midweek. They'll will probably feel like they are playing on a Little League field back at home after spending the week in Oakland and Seattle.
3. Chicago White Sox at Texas Rangers
Just so I don't get accused of an east coast bias (or mid-Atlantic for that matter) I head to the middle of the country for this battle of division leading (or co-leading) teams. Just when I thought the White Sox would take a step in reverse they took advantage of playing the Twins by sweeping them. Things should get a bit tougher deep in the heart of Texas against the Rangers who are feeling the heat from both the Angels and Athletics. The week for Texas has been overshadowed by squabbling between Nolan Ryan and Josh Hamilton over the sluggers recent extended struggles. Tonight is the featured match up Chris Sale facing off against Yu Darvish...that should be all kinds of fun. I'm saying Josh Hamilton has a hat trick of K's tonight.
2. Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco Giants
Just to keep my west coast reader(s) in the loop I head to the other side of the Bay to focus on the Giants as they bring in their biggest rival to AT&T Park. Sitting only three games behind first place, the Dodgers are healthy, have added Hanley Ramirez and feeling kind of salty after losing three of four to St. Louis. The West won't be won or lost this weekend, but both teams are in being given the opportunity to stake their claim for the division title. The marquee pitching duel comes Sunday afternoon when Clayton Kershaw goes up against Ryan Vogelsong. I bet that game will be shorter than the running time of the Dark Knight Rises...just saying.
1. The Summer Olympics
Even though soccer is well underway including the Spain men being stunned by Japan, the Olympics officially get underway with the opening ceremonies tonight. I usually only grab the highlights of that, but this year it is being run by one of my favorite movie directors, Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire). Also seeing as London is the only city in Europe I've ever been to I will at least recognize some of the sights around the Olympic village. The biggest disappointment about this years Olympics is that there will be zero live prime time events. I'm fortunate to work around multiple televisions so I'll be able to watch swimming, basketball and soccer live, but in this day and age tape delayed sports just don't cut it. Between web surfing on ESPN, Twitter and watching television at work I should know all the results by 8pm. That sucks. Sure I could cut myself off from the world at work, but I may miss important tweets!!!!! :)
I'm a sucker for the Olympics whereas many of you aren't. I like to get into the mind of the athletes and realize that they have worked their entire lives for these two weeks. For some this will be their only moment of glory. Not all will see four Olympics like Michael Phelps. Not all are multimillionaires like LeBron James. Some will just have their story told for two weeks and have one chance to succeed and get on a box of Wheaties or fail and be forgotten forever. No pressure. There will be tears of joy and tears of sadness and that is what draws me in. It's top level competition with individual accomplishment and national pride at stake. Go USA!!!
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In case your not wanting to watch live sports this weekend, I'll present you with my favorite sports movies of all time. Being good is not a qualification.
Top 10 Favorite Sports Movies:
10. Searching For Bobby Fischer-sweet story about a father trying to connect with his son who is a chess prodigy.
9. Eight Men Out-the story about the 1919 Chicago White Sox who threw the World Series
8. Rocky IV-USA vs USSR; Sylvester Stallone vs. He-Man
7. Happy Gilmore-The price is wrong, bitch. Need I say more?
6. Rounders-Technically not a sport, but it inspired a generation of card players including me
5. The Rookie-The dream I hang onto every new season
4. The Sandlot-If you have to ask, you're not my friend.
3. Major League-Still funny and very quotable almost 25 years later
2. Field of Dreams-If you don't cry, you don't have a soul.
1. Miracle-The sporting event I most wish I was able to watch live (or on tape delay as it was for most). Masterful reenactment and the usage of the live call by Al Michaels is perfection.
Let's get right to it...your limited weekend viewing guide:
5: Baseball Trading Deadline
I'm cheating a little bit here because the deadline isn't officially until Tuesday, but seeing as this is the final weekend for your favorite team to prove they're a buyer or a seller. Hopefully there are a couple of trades this weekend to tide us over. We've already seen Hanley Ramirez and Ichiro traded and yesterday the Brewers announced that pitcher Zack Greinke will most certainly be traded. Because of the 2nd Wild Card there is fear that more teams will avoid selling off key pieces and just stand pat. It will be interesting
to see if there is more or less activity than usual.
4: Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees
Just because I won't be watching this, doesn't mean the rest of America won't be suckered into it. Doesn't this feel like a last stand for Boston? They are in dead last place in the A.L. East at 10.5 behind their bitter rival and 4.5 games out of the Wild Card, but the caveat is that seven teams are ahead of them. They cannot afford to get bludgeoned this weekend and fall further behind. The Yankees had a bad weekend out west and then lost ARod for six weeks with a broken hand midweek. They'll will probably feel like they are playing on a Little League field back at home after spending the week in Oakland and Seattle.
3. Chicago White Sox at Texas Rangers
Just so I don't get accused of an east coast bias (or mid-Atlantic for that matter) I head to the middle of the country for this battle of division leading (or co-leading) teams. Just when I thought the White Sox would take a step in reverse they took advantage of playing the Twins by sweeping them. Things should get a bit tougher deep in the heart of Texas against the Rangers who are feeling the heat from both the Angels and Athletics. The week for Texas has been overshadowed by squabbling between Nolan Ryan and Josh Hamilton over the sluggers recent extended struggles. Tonight is the featured match up Chris Sale facing off against Yu Darvish...that should be all kinds of fun. I'm saying Josh Hamilton has a hat trick of K's tonight.
2. Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco Giants
Just to keep my west coast reader(s) in the loop I head to the other side of the Bay to focus on the Giants as they bring in their biggest rival to AT&T Park. Sitting only three games behind first place, the Dodgers are healthy, have added Hanley Ramirez and feeling kind of salty after losing three of four to St. Louis. The West won't be won or lost this weekend, but both teams are in being given the opportunity to stake their claim for the division title. The marquee pitching duel comes Sunday afternoon when Clayton Kershaw goes up against Ryan Vogelsong. I bet that game will be shorter than the running time of the Dark Knight Rises...just saying.
1. The Summer Olympics
Even though soccer is well underway including the Spain men being stunned by Japan, the Olympics officially get underway with the opening ceremonies tonight. I usually only grab the highlights of that, but this year it is being run by one of my favorite movie directors, Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire). Also seeing as London is the only city in Europe I've ever been to I will at least recognize some of the sights around the Olympic village. The biggest disappointment about this years Olympics is that there will be zero live prime time events. I'm fortunate to work around multiple televisions so I'll be able to watch swimming, basketball and soccer live, but in this day and age tape delayed sports just don't cut it. Between web surfing on ESPN, Twitter and watching television at work I should know all the results by 8pm. That sucks. Sure I could cut myself off from the world at work, but I may miss important tweets!!!!! :)
I'm a sucker for the Olympics whereas many of you aren't. I like to get into the mind of the athletes and realize that they have worked their entire lives for these two weeks. For some this will be their only moment of glory. Not all will see four Olympics like Michael Phelps. Not all are multimillionaires like LeBron James. Some will just have their story told for two weeks and have one chance to succeed and get on a box of Wheaties or fail and be forgotten forever. No pressure. There will be tears of joy and tears of sadness and that is what draws me in. It's top level competition with individual accomplishment and national pride at stake. Go USA!!!
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In case your not wanting to watch live sports this weekend, I'll present you with my favorite sports movies of all time. Being good is not a qualification.
Top 10 Favorite Sports Movies:
10. Searching For Bobby Fischer-sweet story about a father trying to connect with his son who is a chess prodigy.
9. Eight Men Out-the story about the 1919 Chicago White Sox who threw the World Series
8. Rocky IV-USA vs USSR; Sylvester Stallone vs. He-Man
7. Happy Gilmore-The price is wrong, bitch. Need I say more?
6. Rounders-Technically not a sport, but it inspired a generation of card players including me
5. The Rookie-The dream I hang onto every new season
4. The Sandlot-If you have to ask, you're not my friend.
3. Major League-Still funny and very quotable almost 25 years later
2. Field of Dreams-If you don't cry, you don't have a soul.
1. Miracle-The sporting event I most wish I was able to watch live (or on tape delay as it was for most). Masterful reenactment and the usage of the live call by Al Michaels is perfection.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Pocket Pair 7/26/12
Last night I went to see Dark Knight Rises and I'm here to give you an non spoiler quick review if you haven't seen it. I don't pay attention to the underlying elements that real critics nitpick about. I could care less if the score of the film flows properly with the pace of the film. What I watch movies for is a good story line, good acting, a believable plot, hopefully a twist or two and I like to be entertained. Pretty simple, no?
Let's take a step back first because the newest films deals more with the Batman Begins more than it does The Dark Knight. I highly recommend you re-watch that one before seeing Dark Knight Rises. That's about as much as I'll say in regards to that plot line.
The final installment of the Batman trilogy from the mind of Christopher Nolan is a much darker and serious film than was The Dark Knight. Gone are the snappy one liners from The Joker and the much needed comedic elements to offset a dreary setting that is Gotham. It may look like New York, but the city is more like Seattle during the rainy season and Alaska during the winter time when the sun is barely seen. The newest villain, Bane, is in the mold of The Terminator. He does not laugh, he doesn't have feelings, but just rather is focused on the end goal of total annihilation.
The closest the film gets to a happy moment is the rare back and forth banter between Batman and Catwoman, who is played just right by Anne Hathaway. When Michelle Pfeiffer portrayed the same character in 1992, the character felt more like a comic book character than a movie character. I'll ignore the Halle Berry movie all together. This go around the Catwoman is still devious, still vicious and still has an elegance to the fight sequences.
I had read that the first half of the movie could be seen as confusing because of the introduction of all the players in the film. This is true, but Nolan quickly weaves together the loose ends and the story races to a very satisfying climax. The biggest issue I had with the film is that it was really difficult to understand Bane. Forget all the complaints about how low and incoherent Christian Bale sounds as Batman, Bane needed subtitles. I am sure any fan of the first two movies will enjoy the third one, but don't go into expecting a tour de force of superior acting performances and action sequences that were seen in The Dark Knight. I still believe that one was the best of the three because it captured all the emotions that are expected in an epic film. This one was more of a middle film like Empire Strikes Back in the Star Wars trilogy where the protagonist struggles to rediscover himself and then flourishes in the finale. Okay that's enough...I'll stop right there. Go see it and enjoy.
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While I was out last night the Oakland Athletics trounced the Toronto Blue Jays 16-0. You've heard enough of me on this team, but when you win 16-0 it opens eyes. The Blue Jays are no Yankees, but its very difficult to beat even the worst of teams by 16. Is this team starting to remind me of the 'Moneyball' team from 2002 who had that 20 game win streak?? No. Do you realize Oakland was already 17 games over .500 when they won 20 in a row? That's like the Washington Nationals tearing off 15 more from today. The 2002 teams was 20-26 at one point before finishing with 103 wins to only 59 losses...that a nice little 83-33 clip folks.
Of course we all know that the 2002 team fizzled in October as have all the other recent good Athletics teams and I expect this one to hit the wall eventually as well. Without mortgaging the future, Oakland isn't going to fill all of their holes this season. They need to stay the course and continue to pray for a new stadium which will bring a new television contract and new money and hopefully the ability to hang onto some young talent.
Okay that's it about the A's this go around...I'm sure by even mentioning that magical number 20 that they'll lay an egg this afternoon and lose 8-1.
Let's take a step back first because the newest films deals more with the Batman Begins more than it does The Dark Knight. I highly recommend you re-watch that one before seeing Dark Knight Rises. That's about as much as I'll say in regards to that plot line.
The final installment of the Batman trilogy from the mind of Christopher Nolan is a much darker and serious film than was The Dark Knight. Gone are the snappy one liners from The Joker and the much needed comedic elements to offset a dreary setting that is Gotham. It may look like New York, but the city is more like Seattle during the rainy season and Alaska during the winter time when the sun is barely seen. The newest villain, Bane, is in the mold of The Terminator. He does not laugh, he doesn't have feelings, but just rather is focused on the end goal of total annihilation.
The closest the film gets to a happy moment is the rare back and forth banter between Batman and Catwoman, who is played just right by Anne Hathaway. When Michelle Pfeiffer portrayed the same character in 1992, the character felt more like a comic book character than a movie character. I'll ignore the Halle Berry movie all together. This go around the Catwoman is still devious, still vicious and still has an elegance to the fight sequences.
I had read that the first half of the movie could be seen as confusing because of the introduction of all the players in the film. This is true, but Nolan quickly weaves together the loose ends and the story races to a very satisfying climax. The biggest issue I had with the film is that it was really difficult to understand Bane. Forget all the complaints about how low and incoherent Christian Bale sounds as Batman, Bane needed subtitles. I am sure any fan of the first two movies will enjoy the third one, but don't go into expecting a tour de force of superior acting performances and action sequences that were seen in The Dark Knight. I still believe that one was the best of the three because it captured all the emotions that are expected in an epic film. This one was more of a middle film like Empire Strikes Back in the Star Wars trilogy where the protagonist struggles to rediscover himself and then flourishes in the finale. Okay that's enough...I'll stop right there. Go see it and enjoy.
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While I was out last night the Oakland Athletics trounced the Toronto Blue Jays 16-0. You've heard enough of me on this team, but when you win 16-0 it opens eyes. The Blue Jays are no Yankees, but its very difficult to beat even the worst of teams by 16. Is this team starting to remind me of the 'Moneyball' team from 2002 who had that 20 game win streak?? No. Do you realize Oakland was already 17 games over .500 when they won 20 in a row? That's like the Washington Nationals tearing off 15 more from today. The 2002 teams was 20-26 at one point before finishing with 103 wins to only 59 losses...that a nice little 83-33 clip folks.
Of course we all know that the 2002 team fizzled in October as have all the other recent good Athletics teams and I expect this one to hit the wall eventually as well. Without mortgaging the future, Oakland isn't going to fill all of their holes this season. They need to stay the course and continue to pray for a new stadium which will bring a new television contract and new money and hopefully the ability to hang onto some young talent.
Okay that's it about the A's this go around...I'm sure by even mentioning that magical number 20 that they'll lay an egg this afternoon and lose 8-1.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Celebrating 25 Years of Fanaticism: High School Pt. 4
Senior Year 1995-96
The summer of 1995 was all about baseball for me. I'll give you a minute to compose yourself as I'm sure you are shocked by that. Jody and I were teammates again playing on the same team we had played with the year before. A rag tag group of kids coached by beer swilling, good old fashioned red necks. I was not there to learn from them, they didn't have much to teach me. The best thing they did for me though was allow me to pitch as much as I could.
I was a fastball pitcher, not because it was so good that I didn't need anything else, I just couldn't throw anything else. I tried and tried to throw curve balls and sliders but it didn't stick. I kept working on my splitter/fork ball/knuckle ball concoction in practice and very rarely in games. On car trips I would split my pointer finger and my middle finger around the ball and just let it sit there. I had heard a television report about pitchers injury their elbows when throwing split fingered pitches because the tendon wouldn't stretch out enough. I don't have big hands so I tried to get ahead of the possible injury. I wish someone had told me about avoiding shoulder pain though (a teaser line for the next 15 years).
Maybe it was the lack of pitching at a young age or just dumb luck, but I could throw and throw and throw and never seem to get tired. It was my greatest strength and the causation of my eventual downfall. I loved to pitch. You asked me to toe the slab and I'd say okay. As a fierce competitor, pitching fed a burning desire in me that I had never had with baseball. Hitting was a one on one battle, but you were lucky to succeed 3/10 times. That's quite discouraging. Pitching puts you on the other end of that equation and have a 70+% success rate is a lot more fun. I embraced the challenge of getting the other team out. The entire focus was on you and how well you performed. Its an ego trip, I kid you not. Nobody asks the left fielder about their day in the field, its how did you pitch. There were stats to keep, stats to talk about and stats to brag about. I was smitten.
By the time my senior year started I knew I was going to compete for some innings on the mound whether I was going up against two of my longtime friends or not.
That summer also marked the return of Major League Baseball. After the strike of 1994 canceled the playoffs and World Series, the powers that be finally got their *stuff* together and struck a deal. It still cost fans the start of the 1995 season, but finally in late April baseball was back. Some fans stayed away, bitter about millionaires fighting with billionaires, losing a World Series for the first time since 1903 and refused to acknowledge that the sport even existed.
With the national pastime in dire straights the baseball world was looking to something to be proud of. That something turned out to be a someone and he was Cal Ripken Jr.. As the schedule was finalized the date September 6th, 1995 became a beacon of light for everyone to focus upon. That date would mark Cal's 2,131 consecutive game played breaking the streak of Lou Gehrig. The number 2,130 was up there with 755 and 61 as one of the most revered numbers in a sport that focused completely on numbers. Cal Ripken was also a very stand up guy, a great ambassador for the game and everything that was the exact opposite of the ugliness that had just occurred last summer.
Living in northern Virginia I watched more Orioles games than anything else. For Oakland Athletics games I was forced to a ritual of watching the ticker on Headline News, ESPN2 or calling Post Haste. Yes Post Haste, who remembers that in the DC area? It was a hotline from the Washington Post that you could call (toll free) to get updates on all subjects...or basically the Twitter of the 1990's. At 10pm I would tune to headline news and just stare at the ticker, religiously. It was so sad looking back, being glued to numbers scrolling by. I had it timed it out, if the Top of the 1st lasted longer than 5 minutes on the ticker it meant the Athletics were in trouble. Only bad things could be happening if it didn't shift to the bottom of the inning quick enough. I'd flip back and forth between Headline News and ESPN2 to make sure one wasn't behind the other. How I didn't invent Twitter boggles my mind. I needed information on a real time basis. It was a drug addiction that I wouldn't shake for a long time. I watched numbers on a screen hours at a time, day by day for the next decade. Believe me, if you think this was bad, it got a whole lot worse when I was older and could stay up longer and then combined with the Athletics actually being good. In the morning I would get up, dial up Post Haste and listen to the game recap. I knew as soon as the first word was said who had won. The recording also started with the player of the game. If I recognized the name the Athletics won, if not, I hung up in disgust. I couldn't wait for the Post to have the box score printed the following day. It was never in the paper the next morning, just listed as 'Late Game.'
Back to Baltimore. Without the ability to watch my favorite team save for the occasional late game on the Wednesday night ESPN DH, I watched the Orioles. Deep down inside I still had a soft spot for them no matter how badly they embarrassed me in 1988. My sister who was turning into a female me, caught the baseball bug as well. Mainly it was her attraction to Orioles outfielder Brady Anderson. As the Athletics plowed towards another last place finish against all my wishin' and a hopin' and a prayin' I squared my focus on Cal Ripken and his streak. Every game you held your breath...just don't get injured. To get this close and to not break the streak would be devastating. I went to a couple games that summer including 2,128. If you weren't around to watch the daily ceremonies, the Orioles used the B&O Warehouse facade as a makeshift 'count up' draping huge numbers signifying the games played as the game because official. Cal would get as standing ovation and the game would move on after a new number was displayed.
The night of the streak tying game, Cal hit a home run. It was a great story. My sister was happy that Brady hit two home runs. He was slowly becoming a power hitter, it was odd to see hit transform from a slap hitter to a power hitter, but oh well, nice story as well.
The next night, ESPN aired the game nationally. People at school were abuzz about that night. Who was going? Oh you're so lucky to go. It was a big deal. President Bill Clinton attended and Chris Berman called the game which signified the importance as he never left the studios at ESPN. All eyes were focused squarely on Cal as he was being dubbed the man that saved baseball. I am sure this streak would have been big without the strike and the fan backlash, but because of it the country swarmed to it. It was pure baseball. Forget the contract, the bumps and bruises and show up to work. A blue collar millionaire. It was the perfect distraction to bitching about labor issues and who would get more money from playing the game we played as children.
What did Cal do for an encore during the famous 2,131? He homered again. Of course he did. With all the reason in the world to lose focus, he was a steel trap. You don't play every day for 13+ years without the ability to put aside distractions. After the top of the 5th concluded, the announcement about the game becoming official started...he had done it! He took a curtain call and tried to get the game started again. He just wanted to play. His teammates and the great fans of Baltimore wanted more Cal. Bobby Bonilla shoved him out to shake hands with the fans and Cal took a lap. At first he was going quickly, but you could tell the moment got to him. He slowed down, shook more hands and thanked as many fans as he could. It was a tear jerking moment. It might have been the only time Chris Berman didn't speak for 20 minutes in his life.
The streak continued for three more seasons before Cal sat on the final home game of the season and I was shocked to see it happen. It is up there with the most unbreakable records in sports history. 2,632 games. In a row. Unbreakable.
The 1995 season also marked the onset of the Wild Card. Because of the strike we didn't get to see how expansion of the playoffs would affect the purity of baseball, but after the initial American League Wild Card series between the Yankees and Mariners everyone knew it was here to stay. Seattle forced the series to a deciding game 5 in the Kingdome. To make a long story short, the city of Seattle almost lost the Mariners. They needed a new stadium and the eventual win in game 5 practically saved the franchise. When Edgar Martinez doubled home Ken Griffey Jr. it was as if the ribbon cutting ceremony for a new stadium took place. My friends and I were at home watching a movie, but we stopped it to watch extra innings and thought for sure the Yankees were going to win after scoring in the top of the 11. We all hated the Yankees, save for Jody, and we cheered right along with Seattle. Jody remained silent.
As the calendar turn to fall, we picked up our rollerblades and starting playing hockey again. 3-4 nights a week we were at a tennis court. We thought we were getting good. The next step was to find a league to play in and that's just what we did. We got snazzy jersey's and the Rink Rats were born. It turned out that outside Isaac, we weren't that good. It was fun to play against somebody new on a real rink with officiating, but we weren't structured enough to really compete. Back to the tennis courts with you amateurs.
The Washington Redskins were looking to rebound from a 3-13 record and hopefully Heath Shuler would show signs of life in year 2. This did not happen. In fact he regressed as the city was split between being on his side and those wanting Gus Frerotte to play more. Bumper stickers shouting 'In Gus we Trust' were all around the area and I was on board. Heath Shulers' tenure in Washington was nothing short of an unmitigated disaster. He played one more season in Washington, never starting and appearing in just a single game in 1996.
Unfortunately for Washington, that even though Frerotte was better than Shuler he was still not good enough to bring home a winning season. By week three I was already done with this team and they were only 1-1. We were playing roller hockey and listening to Sonny, Sam and Frank do the game on radio when John Elway threw a 43 yards Hail Mary to Rod Smith to win the game on the final play of the 4th quarter. The season only got worse from there on. The team bottomed out at 3-9 before saving face and costing them a better draft pick by winning 3 of the final 4 games. Of course one of those wins came against the rival Dallas Cowboys in Dallas. This was a small consolation prize when later that season the Cowboys won their 3rd Super Bowl in the last 4 years. It couldn't get any worse could it?
At least the Detroit Pistons started heading in the right direction. They were basically a two man team with Grant Hill and Allan Houston each averaging about 20 PPG. They made the playoffs as the #7 seed and were promptly swept away by the Orlando Magic. I still found it hard to root for a team that was led by somebody who went to Duke, but winning was better than losing.
Speaking of college basketball, UNC lost both Jerry Stackhouse and Rasheed Wallace to the NBA but welcomed two more potential superstars in Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison. Sometimes when I am sad, I dream about a team with all four of them playing together and it makes me smile. At point guard Jeff McInnis, who was pretty good in his own right, would have had Carter and Stackhouse at each wing and Wallace and Jamison at the post. I don't see that team losing ever. Instead it was a freshmen led team that was highly talented but not tested. Then they decided to mess with my mind and come out of the gate 9-1 and eventually 16-4 (7-1 in ACC play) with 2 losses coming out of conference to Villanova in a weird scheduling oddity. This included a one point victory over Duke so by February I was thinking championship yet again.
Then the wheels came off with 5 losses over the next 8 games, then a win in the finale against Duke and a 1st round loss to Clemson in the ACC tournament. Something wasn't right, you don't lose to Clemson and think you can win a National Championship. Given a #6 seed UNC cruised in the first round, but were thumped by Texas Tech in the 2nd round and the result was forever immortalized on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
It was an ugly end to an up and down season. Continuing the trend of my arch rivals winning championships, the University of Kentucky wound up beating an over matched Syracuse squad and my friend Erin let me have it. After starting my high school years with a UNC championship, I had to watch both UCLA and Kentucky match them. At least Arkansas beat Duke in the other year and we were all thankful for that.
On the ice the Washington Capitals had another slightly above average season. Good enough to make the playoffs behind the emergence of young goaltender Jim Carey. He won the Vezina Trophy that season for the best goalie in the NHL a year after coming in second. He was the goalie of the future and to know he'd be there for another decade was thrilling. Peter Bondra continued to be the best offensive weapon on the team scoring 52 goals. Even with standouts like this, the team still struggled to make the playoffs finishing 7th in the conference only 3 points away from missing the playoffs all together.
To nobody's surprise they were paired up with the Pittsburgh Penguins once again who were the #2 seed. I was really getting tired of this. My friend Zack and I decided we needed a strategy to get the Capitals over the top this time. We decided to hit up Popeye's and get some chicken and biscuits for the pregame meal and see if that would bring us any luck.
Game 1 up in Pittsburgh didn't go exactly as planned, but it went the Capitals way. Jim Carey was chased midway through the game after surrendering 4 goals and the Penguins held a 4-3 advantage with only a period left to play. The Capitals turned to Olaf Kolzig, a relative unknown to steady the ship. The move worked because the Capitals turned it on, tallying 3 times in the 3rd to win. Game 2 was more of the same for Zack and I, Popeye's for the pregame because that mattered, it really did. Kolzig got the start again and behind another great effort down the stretch of the game including 2 more 3rd period goals, the Capitals won again. They had walked into Pittsburgh and taken both games. Maybe this was their year after all.
Back in Washington, Zack and I settled in to our third Popeye's meal ready to see the Capitals take a stranglehold on the series. We were both a bit surprised to see Jim Carey back in goal for game 3 after Kolzig had won the first two games, but he was the best goalie in the NHL in the regular season and being at home would help him get back on track. Yeah, about that. He was riddled for four goals again as the Capitals fell flat losing 4-1.
The pressure was back on Washington in Game 4 and Zack and I still got Popeye's, but switched to my parents house for this game. The Capitals also switched back to Kolzig in goal. Holding a 2-1 lead in the 3rd things were looking good, and Pittsburgh evened it up...ugh. The game headed to OT and nobody scored. A second OT and the best chance was a penalty shot for the Capitals by star forward Joe Juneau...he missed. Onto a 3rd OT, no scoring. The 4th OT began and my father awoke hearing noises from downstairs. 'What the hell are you still doing up??' he bellowed. 'The game isn't over it's in the 4th OT!!' I pleaded. He went back to bed, I went back to the game, but Zack was shaken. He said he had to leave because he didn't want to get me in trouble. I told him forget about it...he couldn't. As he was getting up to leave I told him the Capitals were going to lose now that he was leaving and about 5 minutes after driving away the Capitals were called for a penalty. Less than 10 seconds left in it and less than a minute until the 5th OT, Petr 'bleeping' Nedved scored. The series was tied at 2 games apiece and I refused to speak to Zack the rest of the series.
As you can guess Pittsburgh won the next two games including a heated game five when the coaches went toe to toe in addition to on ice fights. Another year wasted, more animosity towards Pittsburgh growing.
Back at school we had survived the Blizzard of 1996
and I for one was really looking forward to finally getting a chance to play regularly on the baseball team. I knew I had an outfield spot locked up, but I wanted to pitch and that would be tough as the 3rd or 4th option on the team. As practice was about to begin our top two returning pitchers announced they weren't playing which made me angry and happy all in one. I knew we couldn't be a good team without them, but selfish me was happy I'd get a better shot at pitching. Even after I pleaded with them to play, they refused and I moved on.
Of course this also opened up some spots for my friends to play. Jody and I were already fixtures, Isaac was pretty decent, but Zack and Justin also played and they had...um....a learning curve. We had a really good catcher and a stud center fielder/pitcher who ended up getting drafted 4 years later. Our 2nd baseman was a talented freshman, but that was about it. If I could pitch, we'd at least have a shot a competing, if not, it was going to be a long season.
Coach Horn worked with me knowing he had no other options and I must have responded. He tabbed me as the opening day starter in a two day tournament. I don't think I had ever been so nervous and so thrilled at the same time. It was what I was waiting for ever since leaving 2nd base at 13 years old.
I struck the first batter out on 3 straight pitches, all fastballs and I settled right in. We won that game and I was named all Tournament (4 teams, not a big deal). The entire season consisted of me pitching one game and Eddie pitching the next one. No bullpen, we didn't have one. There were a couple of memorable moments for me from that season and I'd like to share them with you.
-I remember losing to Central High School and getting into it with Coach Horn. Bases loaded, nobody out in the bottom of the 7th, he called for our catcher to throw behind the runner at third to try and get an out but our catcher threw the ball into left field. Looking back it was a good call, but the egoist that I am wanted to strike out the side.
-I remember pitching 7 innings on a Tuesday, but because of a rain out the week before we played Wednesday as well and then again on Friday. I woke up Friday morning in pain, my arm was very sore. I told my mom and she said to tell Coach that I could only throw a couple innings, but not the full game. We went out to Page County over 2 hours away to play. The boys out there were the size of the cows that were in the pastures across the street. They were huge. I gave up a 3 run homer in the 1st inning and we were down 8-0 after 3 innings. That is when my pitching career changed once and for all. My catcher told me to throw my splitter. I did...over and over and over. For the most part it was effective. He didn't know where it was going, I didn't know where it was going, but most importantly the batter had no clue what it was. I heard the chatter in the dugout. 'He's got a curve...no its a knuckle...no its a change up.' We rallied back to tie the game and after 8 innings the game was called due to darkness. The bench told me I through 157 pitches. I'll never forget that number. At home I told mom 'Good news, I didn't pitch 7 innings' and she was so happy...'I pitched 8.' Hahahahaha.
-I remember going to Brentsville High School to face the best player in our District who was aptly also named Jason. My coach advised me that he was being scouted by a few colleges that night so it was up to me to get them to take notice of me. I think I did a good job of it. I pitched a complete game victory and hit a 'home run' off of the other Jason. The home run is in quotes because they didn't have a fence so I hit the ball and ran...but it counts and I'm sticking to it. It was a party on the way home from that one.
-I remember getting to start the 2nd Annual Falls Church News Press Day at the Ball Park where our local paper would advertise the game by giving away free hot dogs and sodas. Instead of 15 fans we had 100 or so. One of the fans was our old coach who walked by while I was warming up and joked with me that I must have gotten my fastball over 50 mph in the last 2 years. Thanks, dick. It was a rematch of my earlier loss to Central and 'Smiling' Joe Kane. He would stand on the rubber and grin at you while pitching. It infuriated us to know end. By game's end he wasn't smiling. We won and outside of me pitching the only thing I remember is Isaac laying down a bunt that turned into a 3 run home run* (*there may have been an error or 6, but who is really keeping track??).
-Finally I remember ending on a sour note which was the story of my playing career. Last game was a make up game played on the morning of prom and we needed a win to qualify for the district tournament, but it was Eddie's turn to pitch. I was in center field and in the 1st inning a guy rocketed a ball over my head. As I picked it up to throw it back in I wrenched my back. Mid inning I limped back to the dugout and told Coach 'I did something to my back' and he gave me a look...the look and dryly asked 'So you want out of the game?' Nah coach I'm fine I thought and ran away with my tail between my legs. We lost and my career at George Mason ended as quickly as it started.
I grew leaps and bounds during that season. I took on a leadership role, I realized I was pretty good on the mound and I started throwing my splitter for strikes by seasons' end. Coach told me I was going to get to play American Legion baseball that summer with the best of the bigger schools in our area along with Eddie and Jody.
That was going to be an exciting litmus test.
The summer of 1995 was all about baseball for me. I'll give you a minute to compose yourself as I'm sure you are shocked by that. Jody and I were teammates again playing on the same team we had played with the year before. A rag tag group of kids coached by beer swilling, good old fashioned red necks. I was not there to learn from them, they didn't have much to teach me. The best thing they did for me though was allow me to pitch as much as I could.
I was a fastball pitcher, not because it was so good that I didn't need anything else, I just couldn't throw anything else. I tried and tried to throw curve balls and sliders but it didn't stick. I kept working on my splitter/fork ball/knuckle ball concoction in practice and very rarely in games. On car trips I would split my pointer finger and my middle finger around the ball and just let it sit there. I had heard a television report about pitchers injury their elbows when throwing split fingered pitches because the tendon wouldn't stretch out enough. I don't have big hands so I tried to get ahead of the possible injury. I wish someone had told me about avoiding shoulder pain though (a teaser line for the next 15 years).
Maybe it was the lack of pitching at a young age or just dumb luck, but I could throw and throw and throw and never seem to get tired. It was my greatest strength and the causation of my eventual downfall. I loved to pitch. You asked me to toe the slab and I'd say okay. As a fierce competitor, pitching fed a burning desire in me that I had never had with baseball. Hitting was a one on one battle, but you were lucky to succeed 3/10 times. That's quite discouraging. Pitching puts you on the other end of that equation and have a 70+% success rate is a lot more fun. I embraced the challenge of getting the other team out. The entire focus was on you and how well you performed. Its an ego trip, I kid you not. Nobody asks the left fielder about their day in the field, its how did you pitch. There were stats to keep, stats to talk about and stats to brag about. I was smitten.
By the time my senior year started I knew I was going to compete for some innings on the mound whether I was going up against two of my longtime friends or not.
That summer also marked the return of Major League Baseball. After the strike of 1994 canceled the playoffs and World Series, the powers that be finally got their *stuff* together and struck a deal. It still cost fans the start of the 1995 season, but finally in late April baseball was back. Some fans stayed away, bitter about millionaires fighting with billionaires, losing a World Series for the first time since 1903 and refused to acknowledge that the sport even existed.
With the national pastime in dire straights the baseball world was looking to something to be proud of. That something turned out to be a someone and he was Cal Ripken Jr.. As the schedule was finalized the date September 6th, 1995 became a beacon of light for everyone to focus upon. That date would mark Cal's 2,131 consecutive game played breaking the streak of Lou Gehrig. The number 2,130 was up there with 755 and 61 as one of the most revered numbers in a sport that focused completely on numbers. Cal Ripken was also a very stand up guy, a great ambassador for the game and everything that was the exact opposite of the ugliness that had just occurred last summer.
Living in northern Virginia I watched more Orioles games than anything else. For Oakland Athletics games I was forced to a ritual of watching the ticker on Headline News, ESPN2 or calling Post Haste. Yes Post Haste, who remembers that in the DC area? It was a hotline from the Washington Post that you could call (toll free) to get updates on all subjects...or basically the Twitter of the 1990's. At 10pm I would tune to headline news and just stare at the ticker, religiously. It was so sad looking back, being glued to numbers scrolling by. I had it timed it out, if the Top of the 1st lasted longer than 5 minutes on the ticker it meant the Athletics were in trouble. Only bad things could be happening if it didn't shift to the bottom of the inning quick enough. I'd flip back and forth between Headline News and ESPN2 to make sure one wasn't behind the other. How I didn't invent Twitter boggles my mind. I needed information on a real time basis. It was a drug addiction that I wouldn't shake for a long time. I watched numbers on a screen hours at a time, day by day for the next decade. Believe me, if you think this was bad, it got a whole lot worse when I was older and could stay up longer and then combined with the Athletics actually being good. In the morning I would get up, dial up Post Haste and listen to the game recap. I knew as soon as the first word was said who had won. The recording also started with the player of the game. If I recognized the name the Athletics won, if not, I hung up in disgust. I couldn't wait for the Post to have the box score printed the following day. It was never in the paper the next morning, just listed as 'Late Game.'
Back to Baltimore. Without the ability to watch my favorite team save for the occasional late game on the Wednesday night ESPN DH, I watched the Orioles. Deep down inside I still had a soft spot for them no matter how badly they embarrassed me in 1988. My sister who was turning into a female me, caught the baseball bug as well. Mainly it was her attraction to Orioles outfielder Brady Anderson. As the Athletics plowed towards another last place finish against all my wishin' and a hopin' and a prayin' I squared my focus on Cal Ripken and his streak. Every game you held your breath...just don't get injured. To get this close and to not break the streak would be devastating. I went to a couple games that summer including 2,128. If you weren't around to watch the daily ceremonies, the Orioles used the B&O Warehouse facade as a makeshift 'count up' draping huge numbers signifying the games played as the game because official. Cal would get as standing ovation and the game would move on after a new number was displayed.
The night of the streak tying game, Cal hit a home run. It was a great story. My sister was happy that Brady hit two home runs. He was slowly becoming a power hitter, it was odd to see hit transform from a slap hitter to a power hitter, but oh well, nice story as well.
The next night, ESPN aired the game nationally. People at school were abuzz about that night. Who was going? Oh you're so lucky to go. It was a big deal. President Bill Clinton attended and Chris Berman called the game which signified the importance as he never left the studios at ESPN. All eyes were focused squarely on Cal as he was being dubbed the man that saved baseball. I am sure this streak would have been big without the strike and the fan backlash, but because of it the country swarmed to it. It was pure baseball. Forget the contract, the bumps and bruises and show up to work. A blue collar millionaire. It was the perfect distraction to bitching about labor issues and who would get more money from playing the game we played as children.
What did Cal do for an encore during the famous 2,131? He homered again. Of course he did. With all the reason in the world to lose focus, he was a steel trap. You don't play every day for 13+ years without the ability to put aside distractions. After the top of the 5th concluded, the announcement about the game becoming official started...he had done it! He took a curtain call and tried to get the game started again. He just wanted to play. His teammates and the great fans of Baltimore wanted more Cal. Bobby Bonilla shoved him out to shake hands with the fans and Cal took a lap. At first he was going quickly, but you could tell the moment got to him. He slowed down, shook more hands and thanked as many fans as he could. It was a tear jerking moment. It might have been the only time Chris Berman didn't speak for 20 minutes in his life.
The streak continued for three more seasons before Cal sat on the final home game of the season and I was shocked to see it happen. It is up there with the most unbreakable records in sports history. 2,632 games. In a row. Unbreakable.
The 1995 season also marked the onset of the Wild Card. Because of the strike we didn't get to see how expansion of the playoffs would affect the purity of baseball, but after the initial American League Wild Card series between the Yankees and Mariners everyone knew it was here to stay. Seattle forced the series to a deciding game 5 in the Kingdome. To make a long story short, the city of Seattle almost lost the Mariners. They needed a new stadium and the eventual win in game 5 practically saved the franchise. When Edgar Martinez doubled home Ken Griffey Jr. it was as if the ribbon cutting ceremony for a new stadium took place. My friends and I were at home watching a movie, but we stopped it to watch extra innings and thought for sure the Yankees were going to win after scoring in the top of the 11. We all hated the Yankees, save for Jody, and we cheered right along with Seattle. Jody remained silent.
As the calendar turn to fall, we picked up our rollerblades and starting playing hockey again. 3-4 nights a week we were at a tennis court. We thought we were getting good. The next step was to find a league to play in and that's just what we did. We got snazzy jersey's and the Rink Rats were born. It turned out that outside Isaac, we weren't that good. It was fun to play against somebody new on a real rink with officiating, but we weren't structured enough to really compete. Back to the tennis courts with you amateurs.
The Washington Redskins were looking to rebound from a 3-13 record and hopefully Heath Shuler would show signs of life in year 2. This did not happen. In fact he regressed as the city was split between being on his side and those wanting Gus Frerotte to play more. Bumper stickers shouting 'In Gus we Trust' were all around the area and I was on board. Heath Shulers' tenure in Washington was nothing short of an unmitigated disaster. He played one more season in Washington, never starting and appearing in just a single game in 1996.
Unfortunately for Washington, that even though Frerotte was better than Shuler he was still not good enough to bring home a winning season. By week three I was already done with this team and they were only 1-1. We were playing roller hockey and listening to Sonny, Sam and Frank do the game on radio when John Elway threw a 43 yards Hail Mary to Rod Smith to win the game on the final play of the 4th quarter. The season only got worse from there on. The team bottomed out at 3-9 before saving face and costing them a better draft pick by winning 3 of the final 4 games. Of course one of those wins came against the rival Dallas Cowboys in Dallas. This was a small consolation prize when later that season the Cowboys won their 3rd Super Bowl in the last 4 years. It couldn't get any worse could it?
At least the Detroit Pistons started heading in the right direction. They were basically a two man team with Grant Hill and Allan Houston each averaging about 20 PPG. They made the playoffs as the #7 seed and were promptly swept away by the Orlando Magic. I still found it hard to root for a team that was led by somebody who went to Duke, but winning was better than losing.
Speaking of college basketball, UNC lost both Jerry Stackhouse and Rasheed Wallace to the NBA but welcomed two more potential superstars in Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison. Sometimes when I am sad, I dream about a team with all four of them playing together and it makes me smile. At point guard Jeff McInnis, who was pretty good in his own right, would have had Carter and Stackhouse at each wing and Wallace and Jamison at the post. I don't see that team losing ever. Instead it was a freshmen led team that was highly talented but not tested. Then they decided to mess with my mind and come out of the gate 9-1 and eventually 16-4 (7-1 in ACC play) with 2 losses coming out of conference to Villanova in a weird scheduling oddity. This included a one point victory over Duke so by February I was thinking championship yet again.
Then the wheels came off with 5 losses over the next 8 games, then a win in the finale against Duke and a 1st round loss to Clemson in the ACC tournament. Something wasn't right, you don't lose to Clemson and think you can win a National Championship. Given a #6 seed UNC cruised in the first round, but were thumped by Texas Tech in the 2nd round and the result was forever immortalized on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
It was an ugly end to an up and down season. Continuing the trend of my arch rivals winning championships, the University of Kentucky wound up beating an over matched Syracuse squad and my friend Erin let me have it. After starting my high school years with a UNC championship, I had to watch both UCLA and Kentucky match them. At least Arkansas beat Duke in the other year and we were all thankful for that.
On the ice the Washington Capitals had another slightly above average season. Good enough to make the playoffs behind the emergence of young goaltender Jim Carey. He won the Vezina Trophy that season for the best goalie in the NHL a year after coming in second. He was the goalie of the future and to know he'd be there for another decade was thrilling. Peter Bondra continued to be the best offensive weapon on the team scoring 52 goals. Even with standouts like this, the team still struggled to make the playoffs finishing 7th in the conference only 3 points away from missing the playoffs all together.
To nobody's surprise they were paired up with the Pittsburgh Penguins once again who were the #2 seed. I was really getting tired of this. My friend Zack and I decided we needed a strategy to get the Capitals over the top this time. We decided to hit up Popeye's and get some chicken and biscuits for the pregame meal and see if that would bring us any luck.
Game 1 up in Pittsburgh didn't go exactly as planned, but it went the Capitals way. Jim Carey was chased midway through the game after surrendering 4 goals and the Penguins held a 4-3 advantage with only a period left to play. The Capitals turned to Olaf Kolzig, a relative unknown to steady the ship. The move worked because the Capitals turned it on, tallying 3 times in the 3rd to win. Game 2 was more of the same for Zack and I, Popeye's for the pregame because that mattered, it really did. Kolzig got the start again and behind another great effort down the stretch of the game including 2 more 3rd period goals, the Capitals won again. They had walked into Pittsburgh and taken both games. Maybe this was their year after all.
Back in Washington, Zack and I settled in to our third Popeye's meal ready to see the Capitals take a stranglehold on the series. We were both a bit surprised to see Jim Carey back in goal for game 3 after Kolzig had won the first two games, but he was the best goalie in the NHL in the regular season and being at home would help him get back on track. Yeah, about that. He was riddled for four goals again as the Capitals fell flat losing 4-1.
The pressure was back on Washington in Game 4 and Zack and I still got Popeye's, but switched to my parents house for this game. The Capitals also switched back to Kolzig in goal. Holding a 2-1 lead in the 3rd things were looking good, and Pittsburgh evened it up...ugh. The game headed to OT and nobody scored. A second OT and the best chance was a penalty shot for the Capitals by star forward Joe Juneau...he missed. Onto a 3rd OT, no scoring. The 4th OT began and my father awoke hearing noises from downstairs. 'What the hell are you still doing up??' he bellowed. 'The game isn't over it's in the 4th OT!!' I pleaded. He went back to bed, I went back to the game, but Zack was shaken. He said he had to leave because he didn't want to get me in trouble. I told him forget about it...he couldn't. As he was getting up to leave I told him the Capitals were going to lose now that he was leaving and about 5 minutes after driving away the Capitals were called for a penalty. Less than 10 seconds left in it and less than a minute until the 5th OT, Petr 'bleeping' Nedved scored. The series was tied at 2 games apiece and I refused to speak to Zack the rest of the series.
As you can guess Pittsburgh won the next two games including a heated game five when the coaches went toe to toe in addition to on ice fights. Another year wasted, more animosity towards Pittsburgh growing.
Back at school we had survived the Blizzard of 1996
and I for one was really looking forward to finally getting a chance to play regularly on the baseball team. I knew I had an outfield spot locked up, but I wanted to pitch and that would be tough as the 3rd or 4th option on the team. As practice was about to begin our top two returning pitchers announced they weren't playing which made me angry and happy all in one. I knew we couldn't be a good team without them, but selfish me was happy I'd get a better shot at pitching. Even after I pleaded with them to play, they refused and I moved on.
Of course this also opened up some spots for my friends to play. Jody and I were already fixtures, Isaac was pretty decent, but Zack and Justin also played and they had...um....a learning curve. We had a really good catcher and a stud center fielder/pitcher who ended up getting drafted 4 years later. Our 2nd baseman was a talented freshman, but that was about it. If I could pitch, we'd at least have a shot a competing, if not, it was going to be a long season.
Coach Horn worked with me knowing he had no other options and I must have responded. He tabbed me as the opening day starter in a two day tournament. I don't think I had ever been so nervous and so thrilled at the same time. It was what I was waiting for ever since leaving 2nd base at 13 years old.
I struck the first batter out on 3 straight pitches, all fastballs and I settled right in. We won that game and I was named all Tournament (4 teams, not a big deal). The entire season consisted of me pitching one game and Eddie pitching the next one. No bullpen, we didn't have one. There were a couple of memorable moments for me from that season and I'd like to share them with you.
-I remember losing to Central High School and getting into it with Coach Horn. Bases loaded, nobody out in the bottom of the 7th, he called for our catcher to throw behind the runner at third to try and get an out but our catcher threw the ball into left field. Looking back it was a good call, but the egoist that I am wanted to strike out the side.
-I remember pitching 7 innings on a Tuesday, but because of a rain out the week before we played Wednesday as well and then again on Friday. I woke up Friday morning in pain, my arm was very sore. I told my mom and she said to tell Coach that I could only throw a couple innings, but not the full game. We went out to Page County over 2 hours away to play. The boys out there were the size of the cows that were in the pastures across the street. They were huge. I gave up a 3 run homer in the 1st inning and we were down 8-0 after 3 innings. That is when my pitching career changed once and for all. My catcher told me to throw my splitter. I did...over and over and over. For the most part it was effective. He didn't know where it was going, I didn't know where it was going, but most importantly the batter had no clue what it was. I heard the chatter in the dugout. 'He's got a curve...no its a knuckle...no its a change up.' We rallied back to tie the game and after 8 innings the game was called due to darkness. The bench told me I through 157 pitches. I'll never forget that number. At home I told mom 'Good news, I didn't pitch 7 innings' and she was so happy...'I pitched 8.' Hahahahaha.
-I remember going to Brentsville High School to face the best player in our District who was aptly also named Jason. My coach advised me that he was being scouted by a few colleges that night so it was up to me to get them to take notice of me. I think I did a good job of it. I pitched a complete game victory and hit a 'home run' off of the other Jason. The home run is in quotes because they didn't have a fence so I hit the ball and ran...but it counts and I'm sticking to it. It was a party on the way home from that one.
-I remember getting to start the 2nd Annual Falls Church News Press Day at the Ball Park where our local paper would advertise the game by giving away free hot dogs and sodas. Instead of 15 fans we had 100 or so. One of the fans was our old coach who walked by while I was warming up and joked with me that I must have gotten my fastball over 50 mph in the last 2 years. Thanks, dick. It was a rematch of my earlier loss to Central and 'Smiling' Joe Kane. He would stand on the rubber and grin at you while pitching. It infuriated us to know end. By game's end he wasn't smiling. We won and outside of me pitching the only thing I remember is Isaac laying down a bunt that turned into a 3 run home run* (*there may have been an error or 6, but who is really keeping track??).
-Finally I remember ending on a sour note which was the story of my playing career. Last game was a make up game played on the morning of prom and we needed a win to qualify for the district tournament, but it was Eddie's turn to pitch. I was in center field and in the 1st inning a guy rocketed a ball over my head. As I picked it up to throw it back in I wrenched my back. Mid inning I limped back to the dugout and told Coach 'I did something to my back' and he gave me a look...the look and dryly asked 'So you want out of the game?' Nah coach I'm fine I thought and ran away with my tail between my legs. We lost and my career at George Mason ended as quickly as it started.
I grew leaps and bounds during that season. I took on a leadership role, I realized I was pretty good on the mound and I started throwing my splitter for strikes by seasons' end. Coach told me I was going to get to play American Legion baseball that summer with the best of the bigger schools in our area along with Eddie and Jody.
That was going to be an exciting litmus test.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Pocket Pair 7/24/12
This will be a much shorter read today...I promise
Last night the Falls Church News Hounds two year reign as DC Wood AA Champions came to an end. We had played consistently inconsistent all season and couldn't overcome numerous mental and physical errors in the field and lack of clutch hitting at the plate. Losing makes you think back to the elation that winning brought on and that hunger inside of you returns with unabashed fervor. I don't know if I'll play next year, I'm currently leaning to no as my body just can't hold up anymore. I love the game, my mental aptitude is sharp, but physically it pains me too much to play. I relish the coaching title I've assumed and they guys even though they are my peers respond well to me and trust my decision making. I've made horrible decisions and a few savvy ones as well. We'll see how I feel next April, but last night might have been it and that is a tough one to think about.
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Yesterday I wrote about Kurt Suzuki possibly being traded from the Oakland Athletics, but I didn't really expect Ichiro Suzuki to get traded. Sure his numbers are way down and Seattle needs to turn the page and create a new identity. For them it makes sense. Ichiro gave Seattle over a decade of relevance after the departure of Ken Griffey Jr. in 1999. I don't see anyone on the current roster that will replace Ichiro. It could be a while until anybody outside of the Pacific Northwest discusses the Mariners. Felix Hernandez is their biggest name left and he plays once every five days. I also don't think he destined to spend the rest of his career toiling in futility so I assume he will find a bigger, more prominent market to play in soon.
As for the Ichiro's new home, New York, I don't see why they made this move. Basically this was Ichiro for Dwayne Wise and outside of the value of the name, the statistics tell me that this doesn't make sense. Ichiro just cannot hit the way he once did. After failing to hit .300 for the first time in his career last year at .272, he has fallen to .261 this season. The true Achilles heel for the Yankees has been hitting in the clutch as they are at a .235 clip with runners in scoring position. Ichiro won't help as he is currently hitting .175 with runners in scoring position (per Steve Berthiaume at ESPN who probably poached that stat from somebody else anyways). The Yankees can get people on base, they can hit home runs, but a nice little blooper with 2 on and 2 out that falls for a hit is what may be their ruin in October.
Last night the Falls Church News Hounds two year reign as DC Wood AA Champions came to an end. We had played consistently inconsistent all season and couldn't overcome numerous mental and physical errors in the field and lack of clutch hitting at the plate. Losing makes you think back to the elation that winning brought on and that hunger inside of you returns with unabashed fervor. I don't know if I'll play next year, I'm currently leaning to no as my body just can't hold up anymore. I love the game, my mental aptitude is sharp, but physically it pains me too much to play. I relish the coaching title I've assumed and they guys even though they are my peers respond well to me and trust my decision making. I've made horrible decisions and a few savvy ones as well. We'll see how I feel next April, but last night might have been it and that is a tough one to think about.
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Yesterday I wrote about Kurt Suzuki possibly being traded from the Oakland Athletics, but I didn't really expect Ichiro Suzuki to get traded. Sure his numbers are way down and Seattle needs to turn the page and create a new identity. For them it makes sense. Ichiro gave Seattle over a decade of relevance after the departure of Ken Griffey Jr. in 1999. I don't see anyone on the current roster that will replace Ichiro. It could be a while until anybody outside of the Pacific Northwest discusses the Mariners. Felix Hernandez is their biggest name left and he plays once every five days. I also don't think he destined to spend the rest of his career toiling in futility so I assume he will find a bigger, more prominent market to play in soon.
As for the Ichiro's new home, New York, I don't see why they made this move. Basically this was Ichiro for Dwayne Wise and outside of the value of the name, the statistics tell me that this doesn't make sense. Ichiro just cannot hit the way he once did. After failing to hit .300 for the first time in his career last year at .272, he has fallen to .261 this season. The true Achilles heel for the Yankees has been hitting in the clutch as they are at a .235 clip with runners in scoring position. Ichiro won't help as he is currently hitting .175 with runners in scoring position (per Steve Berthiaume at ESPN who probably poached that stat from somebody else anyways). The Yankees can get people on base, they can hit home runs, but a nice little blooper with 2 on and 2 out that falls for a hit is what may be their ruin in October.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Pocket Pair 7/23/12
It may be Monday, but I'm still beaming from what the Oakland Athletics were able to accomplish this weekend. More on that later. It was a rainy weekend he in Virginia, but hopefully all of that is past us and we can dry out and play some baseball. My team, the Falls Church News Hounds are facing elimination tonight, but I can be sure that we won't go down swinging. We're not ready to give up the crown that easily.
This week also marks the final week of work for my mom. She is retiring from the U.S. Government after 39 years of service. 20 at the Pentagon and 19 at the U.S.G.S.. It's almost guaranteed she finds new work quickly on a part time basis, because she is not one to sit around. Sure she can golf, go geocaching, do puzzles and (hopefully) babysit in the near future, but I think she find something to do. We have a party for her this weekend planned and I can't think of a harder working, more consistent employee than her that deserves a celebration of a career than she does.
As for what went on in the world or sports (and entertainment) this weekend, we look back.
10. The Dark Knight Rises
The release of the 3rd part of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy was marred Friday night by a psychotic gunman in Colorado at a midnight showing. Yet another gun related tragedy in the United States and without getting too political it needs to stop. I am not a gun owner, nor have I ever fired one but that has a lot to do with my upbringing and where I live. I have never been into hunting or felt unsafe in my house that would necessitate owning a gun, but I understand why they should be allowed to be owned. I'm not against guns, I just think we have too many of them and they are glorified as accessories rather than what they truly are: killing devices. Moving on...
I didn't see the movie because I don't like going to crowded theaters to see PG-13 movies. I get weekdays off from work and I like to cruise into my local theater and hang out with retirees and a bunch of empty seats. I can wait a week, its no rush. Due to the tragedy in Colorado, the numbers of dollars that the movie made were not released, but it will be interesting to see how the events Friday night affect the sales. I doubt it did much because I can only assume that most tickets were already bought by Saturday morning for the weekend.
9. San Francisco Giants at Philadelphia Phillies
This weekend might have been the last relevant weekend for the Phillies. They dropped two of three to the Giants even as they were getting healthier as a team. Tim Lincecum shut Philadelphia down as he continues to try and right the worst season of his career. The pitchers' duel on Saturday fizzled between Cain and Hamels mainly because they decided to homer off each other. Each pitcher gave up 5 earned runs and the Giants pulled it out in extras. The home run derby that I expected for Sunday's game actually was the best pitched match up of the series as Barry Zito and Joe Blanton gave up only 3 runs each (although they did give up 4 home runs) over 15 combined innings and luckily for the Phillies they eked out the game in the 12th to avoid the sweep.
8. Miami Marlins at Pittsburgh Pirates
This weekend was dedicated to Andrew McCutchen and he did go 5 for 11 with a RBI. I left realizing that Pittsburgh might not be going away this year like they did last season. Their starting pitching is far away better and deeper this season and that will keep them in it. The three starters gave up only 4 runs over 19 2/3 innings against the Marlins. Even without Giancarlo Staton, Miami still has a decent offense and that is impressive to hold them down so well. It will be real interesting to see if Pittsburgh can add 1-2 big bats to put around McCutchen for the home stretch. Maybe they can poach somebody from Miami after sweeping them this weekend because its almost a certainty that the fish will be looking to unload some players to offset their ballooned payroll because of entering a new stadium.
7. New York Yankees at Oakland Athletics
Where do I start? How do I keep my 'journalistic integrity' without falling into pure unabashed rantings of a die hard fan? What is going on in Oakland is downright mesmerizing. As a fan I don't really understand it myself. The pitching being so good with such green pitchers is nothing new to the franchise. Being in a cavernous stadium is conducive to a low ERA, but doing it against the Yankees is another thing. The Athletics gave up only 10 runs to New York in 39 innings while striking out 37 batters and walking only 4. To the New York (expletive) Yankees. New York is the most patient team in baseball and the young Athletics staff (and Bartolo Colon) didn't flinch. They attacked the potent lineup and even despite a couple of potential backbreaking home runs late in the games, they refused to relent.
The offense did just to help out the pitching staff. Mainly through the use of the long ball with 6 home runs accounting for 7 of the 14 runs scored for Oakland, the Athletics squeaked out four 1 run victories. The flaws are still obvious. They can't get on base, they strike out too much and hit way too many fly balls. Coco Crisp was one of the heroes today, but the fact is he is hitting .248 with a .309 OBP as the primary lead off hitter and their number two hitter, Jemile Weeks is hitting .216 with a measly .301 OBP. That will not cut it. Along with almost zero production from the shortstop and catcher positions this season its quite miraculous the Athletics ever score. They need to address at least two of those holes without disrupting the make and feel of the team.
Kurt Suzuki is toughest decision to make. He is so revered on that team as a signal caller and team leader, but his offense as fallen off the cliff so suddenly that his defensive skill set is just not good enough to keep him as a regular starter. He hit his first home run of the season today and as the fourth highest paid player on a low budget team something needs to be done. He is the primary reason why any young pitcher seems to flourish right way in Oakland, but unlike the Designated Hitter, there isn't a Designated Fielder and his .211 average and .246 OBP is a joke.
I hate to poke holes at the magic carpet ride that is the 2012 Oakland Athletics season, but they are a poor mans New York Yankees (literally) relying so heavily on hitting home runs to survive. They have so many pitchers to flip for hitting including injured starters Brandon McCarthy, Dallas Braden and Brett Anderson that a pitching starved team like the Blue Jays or Orioles could be a good trading partner. J.P. Arencibia, Yunel Escobar, Wilson Betimet or J.J. Hardy would fit right in on the low average, moderate power Athletics. They would certainly be an offensive upgrade over anybody currently wearing green and gold. It also happens to be convenient that this week Oakland will be headed to both Toronto and Baltimore with a chance to put distance between them in the Wild Card standings. Whether it would help the team is to be seen as they just seem to enjoy each other so much right now.
6. USA Men's Basketball vs Argentina
I tried to warn you it would be close. It didn't start that way, but Argentina is good and without a blistering start the USA might have lost. Tempers got heated with multiple hard fouls and quick dust ups which hopefully kept the team focused. The game was relatively close throughout the second half thanks to Manu Ginobili who poured in 23 points, but the USA found a way to win. It was only a six point margin, not the 20-25 I thought it might be so maybe the US squad isn't as good as I thought it was. Their next game could be even more difficult as they take on Spain on Tuesday. Obviously they will still be favorites to win gold in London, but it may not be the cakewalk come the medal round that we all hoped it would be.
5. Los Angeles Dodgers at New York Mets
Just as was the demise of the Phillies season this weekend, I think the good mojo that had been running through the Mets locker room this season may have run dry. Picked to finish way down in the standings by most prognosticators the Mets had been a pleasant surprise behind clutch hitting and R.A. Dickey. They caught the Dodgers at the wrong time as they are putting the pieces back together after a mid-season battle with injuries. Los Angeles swept the Mets in New York sending the Mets back under .500 and 8.5 games out of first place in the N.L. East and 5 games out of the Wild Card. The Dodgers are still on the outside of the playoffs looking in as I type, but their talent and momentum should get them back in rather quickly.
4. Chicago White Sox at Detroit Tigers
This went as planned for me. Detroit steamrolled through the White Sox this weekend and in doing so they swapped the 1.5 game lead in the A.L. Central. Justin Verlander was very effective again in a big spot whereas Chris Sale failed to produce in his biggest start of the season to date. Behind a solidified starting rotation and their lineup rounding into form (no not at joke about the waistlines of Cabrera and Fielder), the Tigers are finally playing the way they should. This will be the last time all season that Detroit is out of first place. You can take that to the bank. Chicago is still a very good team as they continue to tinker with their overall makeup. They added Brett Myers this week from Houston to help in the bullpen where they don't have much veteran leadership. It appears that their focus will be solely on the Wild Card as the calendar turns to August.
3. Atlanta Braves at Washington Nationals
Up 9-0 on Friday, the Washington Nationals were in prime position to make a statement against the Braves that the race in the N.L. East was about over. Then something funny happened on the way to the White House. The Braves scored 10 unanswered runs, survived a game tying 9th inning home run to complete one of the biggest comebacks in baseball history. Saturday afternoon wasn't much better for the Nationals as they lost Bryce Harper to injury when he bunted the ball off his ankle. They were shut out in the first game of the day/night doubleheader and all of a sudden the lead for Washington had been trimmed to 1.5 games. Harper sat out the night game and the Nationals turned back the clock to John Lannan to try and stop the bleeding. After 1 inning it was 2-0 Braves and the confidence that the Nationals had shown all season was gone.
But these aren't your older brothers Nationals...no they are not. They surged back scoring the final five runs of the night game and then scored the first 8 runs on Sunday en route to a 9-2 win and a series split. Harper returned, but All-Star shortstop Ian Desmond was lost as he re-aggravated his oblique injury and will be disabled for at least a month.
It could have gone all kinds of wrong for Washington, but they survived. Now they have Zimmerman, Gonazalez and Strasburg lined up for their three game set in New York and if that doesn't make you feel confident, I don't know what will.
Atlanta showed a lot of fight and a very well balanced lineup, but their starting pitching is a huge question mark. When Ben Sheets is your best pitcher and he has only 2 starts this season, you know you're in trouble.
2. Texas Rangers at Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
I think the Texas Rangers are in trouble. Not only did they look a step slower, pitch a little worse and look lost at the plate at times, but I think the Angels are the team to beat in the A.L. West. The Athletics may have magic, but they don't have the talent to compete in the long run. The Rangers have pitched well above expectations and stayed healthier than they usually do, but the holes are there. Josh Hamilton is mired in a huge slump as he continues to swing at everything. They are 6-9 in July and about to embark on a suddenly very important 10 game home stand against the Red Sox, White Sox and the very same Angels that they just lost 2 of 3 to. I do realize that in the first 22 days of July the Angels have gained all of 0.5 game on the Rangers (the Athletics have made up 6.5 games), but the writing is on the wall.
Dan Haren has returned to bolster the starting rotation and he pitched very well last night. Ervin Santana still looks like a lost puppy on the mound and I don't see the Angels sticking with him much longer. They will add a pitcher if possible and that should be enough to chase down Texas.
1. The British Open
The first three days of The Open were played in ideal conditions which made for unusually low scoring. None of that will ever be remembered after what went down on Sunday. Adam Scott cruised into the final day with a seemingly insurmountable lead. The weather became the story of the first half of the day as all of the leaders started handing back shots keeping everyone within arms length of the lead. If you could string together only pars, you were more than likely headed in the right direction.
Adam Scott then righted the ship and still maintained a 4 stroke lead with 9 holes to go. After he birdied the 14th hole, the engraver already had 'Adam' done on the Claret Jug. 'The tournament was over' shouted Billy Packer from his retirement home. I was ready to turn off the television and start reading...I was even, dare I say, bored.
Tiger Woods had faded, as had Graeme McDowell, Ernie Els was playing solid, but couldn't make a putt to save his life and Brandt Snedeker remembered that he wasn't elite. The coronation was on and Adam Scott was finally ready to win his first Major and it was well deserved. He played the most consistent golf of anyone this weekend and even helped me reach #1 overall in ESPN's Best Ball Fantasy Golf Challenge for about 30 minutes (I finished T-102).
I guess Scott let himself think about hoisting the Claret Jug, because it all went wrong from then on. He bogeyed the 15th, 3 putted for a bogey on the relatively easy 16th. His lead was two over Els. Up ahead on the 18th green, Ernie Els finally made a birdie putt to cut the lead to 1. Adam Scott looked shaken. He knew what was going on, he saw it slipping away. He bogeyed the 17th and there was a two way tie at the top. Els and Scott, who could have seen this coming??
Adam Scott shanked his drive on the 18th right into one of the 205 sand traps scattered around the course. His only option was to hit the ball sideways for his 2nd shot. He stood 150 yards away needed to get up and down to force a playoff. 30 minutes earlier he the announcers stated 'he had 1 had on the trophy.' Adam Scott drilled an iron shot to within 7 feet and he looked to have stopped the free fall. One putt to start all over, 7 feet to stay in line for that 1st ever Major Championship. He missed and fell to his knees. It was tough to watch. If you have ever competed in a sport (individual or team) you've been there. Hopefully millions of people weren't watching at the time, though.
Congrats to Ernie Els who played the best on Sunday, but you have to feel for Adam Scott, it was a very painful 30 minutes to erase 3 1/2 days of great golf.
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If you didn't notice, I omitted the Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony from this weekend's to do list. In all honesty I completely forgot. Sorry if Barry Larkin and the late Ron Santo just didn't do it for me. It's going to be a rough decade ahead for the Hall of Fame committee as they try to find worth entrants while ignoring a near generation full of stars who got caught up in the era of PED's. Some are downright guilty, some are whispered to have used them and some just played at the wrong time with the wrong people.
Do I think that the best of the best during this era should get in? Yes I do. With an asterisk. Mention that they played during this time and whether they ever admitted to using PED's. Don't say that they were hinted to doing so, that they were investigated or accused, but only if they came clean. We'll never know the true extent of usage or how well it helped extend careers and improve statistics, but it obviously affected the skill level of the elite athletes in the game.
Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens were Hall of Fame worthy long before the mid-to-late 90's. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were not. It will be very dicey over the next 10 years to get any big name player into Cooperstown and that is going to hurt the overall popularity of the Hall of Fame. To not see any players that I grew up watching get in is going to be tough to swallow. I don't know how I'll explain to the next generation.
Sorry son, the 1990's didn't exist. Yeah that'll do.
This week also marks the final week of work for my mom. She is retiring from the U.S. Government after 39 years of service. 20 at the Pentagon and 19 at the U.S.G.S.. It's almost guaranteed she finds new work quickly on a part time basis, because she is not one to sit around. Sure she can golf, go geocaching, do puzzles and (hopefully) babysit in the near future, but I think she find something to do. We have a party for her this weekend planned and I can't think of a harder working, more consistent employee than her that deserves a celebration of a career than she does.
As for what went on in the world or sports (and entertainment) this weekend, we look back.
10. The Dark Knight Rises
The release of the 3rd part of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy was marred Friday night by a psychotic gunman in Colorado at a midnight showing. Yet another gun related tragedy in the United States and without getting too political it needs to stop. I am not a gun owner, nor have I ever fired one but that has a lot to do with my upbringing and where I live. I have never been into hunting or felt unsafe in my house that would necessitate owning a gun, but I understand why they should be allowed to be owned. I'm not against guns, I just think we have too many of them and they are glorified as accessories rather than what they truly are: killing devices. Moving on...
I didn't see the movie because I don't like going to crowded theaters to see PG-13 movies. I get weekdays off from work and I like to cruise into my local theater and hang out with retirees and a bunch of empty seats. I can wait a week, its no rush. Due to the tragedy in Colorado, the numbers of dollars that the movie made were not released, but it will be interesting to see how the events Friday night affect the sales. I doubt it did much because I can only assume that most tickets were already bought by Saturday morning for the weekend.
9. San Francisco Giants at Philadelphia Phillies
This weekend might have been the last relevant weekend for the Phillies. They dropped two of three to the Giants even as they were getting healthier as a team. Tim Lincecum shut Philadelphia down as he continues to try and right the worst season of his career. The pitchers' duel on Saturday fizzled between Cain and Hamels mainly because they decided to homer off each other. Each pitcher gave up 5 earned runs and the Giants pulled it out in extras. The home run derby that I expected for Sunday's game actually was the best pitched match up of the series as Barry Zito and Joe Blanton gave up only 3 runs each (although they did give up 4 home runs) over 15 combined innings and luckily for the Phillies they eked out the game in the 12th to avoid the sweep.
8. Miami Marlins at Pittsburgh Pirates
This weekend was dedicated to Andrew McCutchen and he did go 5 for 11 with a RBI. I left realizing that Pittsburgh might not be going away this year like they did last season. Their starting pitching is far away better and deeper this season and that will keep them in it. The three starters gave up only 4 runs over 19 2/3 innings against the Marlins. Even without Giancarlo Staton, Miami still has a decent offense and that is impressive to hold them down so well. It will be real interesting to see if Pittsburgh can add 1-2 big bats to put around McCutchen for the home stretch. Maybe they can poach somebody from Miami after sweeping them this weekend because its almost a certainty that the fish will be looking to unload some players to offset their ballooned payroll because of entering a new stadium.
7. New York Yankees at Oakland Athletics
Where do I start? How do I keep my 'journalistic integrity' without falling into pure unabashed rantings of a die hard fan? What is going on in Oakland is downright mesmerizing. As a fan I don't really understand it myself. The pitching being so good with such green pitchers is nothing new to the franchise. Being in a cavernous stadium is conducive to a low ERA, but doing it against the Yankees is another thing. The Athletics gave up only 10 runs to New York in 39 innings while striking out 37 batters and walking only 4. To the New York (expletive) Yankees. New York is the most patient team in baseball and the young Athletics staff (and Bartolo Colon) didn't flinch. They attacked the potent lineup and even despite a couple of potential backbreaking home runs late in the games, they refused to relent.
The offense did just to help out the pitching staff. Mainly through the use of the long ball with 6 home runs accounting for 7 of the 14 runs scored for Oakland, the Athletics squeaked out four 1 run victories. The flaws are still obvious. They can't get on base, they strike out too much and hit way too many fly balls. Coco Crisp was one of the heroes today, but the fact is he is hitting .248 with a .309 OBP as the primary lead off hitter and their number two hitter, Jemile Weeks is hitting .216 with a measly .301 OBP. That will not cut it. Along with almost zero production from the shortstop and catcher positions this season its quite miraculous the Athletics ever score. They need to address at least two of those holes without disrupting the make and feel of the team.
Kurt Suzuki is toughest decision to make. He is so revered on that team as a signal caller and team leader, but his offense as fallen off the cliff so suddenly that his defensive skill set is just not good enough to keep him as a regular starter. He hit his first home run of the season today and as the fourth highest paid player on a low budget team something needs to be done. He is the primary reason why any young pitcher seems to flourish right way in Oakland, but unlike the Designated Hitter, there isn't a Designated Fielder and his .211 average and .246 OBP is a joke.
I hate to poke holes at the magic carpet ride that is the 2012 Oakland Athletics season, but they are a poor mans New York Yankees (literally) relying so heavily on hitting home runs to survive. They have so many pitchers to flip for hitting including injured starters Brandon McCarthy, Dallas Braden and Brett Anderson that a pitching starved team like the Blue Jays or Orioles could be a good trading partner. J.P. Arencibia, Yunel Escobar, Wilson Betimet or J.J. Hardy would fit right in on the low average, moderate power Athletics. They would certainly be an offensive upgrade over anybody currently wearing green and gold. It also happens to be convenient that this week Oakland will be headed to both Toronto and Baltimore with a chance to put distance between them in the Wild Card standings. Whether it would help the team is to be seen as they just seem to enjoy each other so much right now.
6. USA Men's Basketball vs Argentina
I tried to warn you it would be close. It didn't start that way, but Argentina is good and without a blistering start the USA might have lost. Tempers got heated with multiple hard fouls and quick dust ups which hopefully kept the team focused. The game was relatively close throughout the second half thanks to Manu Ginobili who poured in 23 points, but the USA found a way to win. It was only a six point margin, not the 20-25 I thought it might be so maybe the US squad isn't as good as I thought it was. Their next game could be even more difficult as they take on Spain on Tuesday. Obviously they will still be favorites to win gold in London, but it may not be the cakewalk come the medal round that we all hoped it would be.
5. Los Angeles Dodgers at New York Mets
Just as was the demise of the Phillies season this weekend, I think the good mojo that had been running through the Mets locker room this season may have run dry. Picked to finish way down in the standings by most prognosticators the Mets had been a pleasant surprise behind clutch hitting and R.A. Dickey. They caught the Dodgers at the wrong time as they are putting the pieces back together after a mid-season battle with injuries. Los Angeles swept the Mets in New York sending the Mets back under .500 and 8.5 games out of first place in the N.L. East and 5 games out of the Wild Card. The Dodgers are still on the outside of the playoffs looking in as I type, but their talent and momentum should get them back in rather quickly.
4. Chicago White Sox at Detroit Tigers
This went as planned for me. Detroit steamrolled through the White Sox this weekend and in doing so they swapped the 1.5 game lead in the A.L. Central. Justin Verlander was very effective again in a big spot whereas Chris Sale failed to produce in his biggest start of the season to date. Behind a solidified starting rotation and their lineup rounding into form (no not at joke about the waistlines of Cabrera and Fielder), the Tigers are finally playing the way they should. This will be the last time all season that Detroit is out of first place. You can take that to the bank. Chicago is still a very good team as they continue to tinker with their overall makeup. They added Brett Myers this week from Houston to help in the bullpen where they don't have much veteran leadership. It appears that their focus will be solely on the Wild Card as the calendar turns to August.
3. Atlanta Braves at Washington Nationals
Up 9-0 on Friday, the Washington Nationals were in prime position to make a statement against the Braves that the race in the N.L. East was about over. Then something funny happened on the way to the White House. The Braves scored 10 unanswered runs, survived a game tying 9th inning home run to complete one of the biggest comebacks in baseball history. Saturday afternoon wasn't much better for the Nationals as they lost Bryce Harper to injury when he bunted the ball off his ankle. They were shut out in the first game of the day/night doubleheader and all of a sudden the lead for Washington had been trimmed to 1.5 games. Harper sat out the night game and the Nationals turned back the clock to John Lannan to try and stop the bleeding. After 1 inning it was 2-0 Braves and the confidence that the Nationals had shown all season was gone.
But these aren't your older brothers Nationals...no they are not. They surged back scoring the final five runs of the night game and then scored the first 8 runs on Sunday en route to a 9-2 win and a series split. Harper returned, but All-Star shortstop Ian Desmond was lost as he re-aggravated his oblique injury and will be disabled for at least a month.
It could have gone all kinds of wrong for Washington, but they survived. Now they have Zimmerman, Gonazalez and Strasburg lined up for their three game set in New York and if that doesn't make you feel confident, I don't know what will.
Atlanta showed a lot of fight and a very well balanced lineup, but their starting pitching is a huge question mark. When Ben Sheets is your best pitcher and he has only 2 starts this season, you know you're in trouble.
2. Texas Rangers at Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
I think the Texas Rangers are in trouble. Not only did they look a step slower, pitch a little worse and look lost at the plate at times, but I think the Angels are the team to beat in the A.L. West. The Athletics may have magic, but they don't have the talent to compete in the long run. The Rangers have pitched well above expectations and stayed healthier than they usually do, but the holes are there. Josh Hamilton is mired in a huge slump as he continues to swing at everything. They are 6-9 in July and about to embark on a suddenly very important 10 game home stand against the Red Sox, White Sox and the very same Angels that they just lost 2 of 3 to. I do realize that in the first 22 days of July the Angels have gained all of 0.5 game on the Rangers (the Athletics have made up 6.5 games), but the writing is on the wall.
Dan Haren has returned to bolster the starting rotation and he pitched very well last night. Ervin Santana still looks like a lost puppy on the mound and I don't see the Angels sticking with him much longer. They will add a pitcher if possible and that should be enough to chase down Texas.
1. The British Open
The first three days of The Open were played in ideal conditions which made for unusually low scoring. None of that will ever be remembered after what went down on Sunday. Adam Scott cruised into the final day with a seemingly insurmountable lead. The weather became the story of the first half of the day as all of the leaders started handing back shots keeping everyone within arms length of the lead. If you could string together only pars, you were more than likely headed in the right direction.
Adam Scott then righted the ship and still maintained a 4 stroke lead with 9 holes to go. After he birdied the 14th hole, the engraver already had 'Adam' done on the Claret Jug. 'The tournament was over' shouted Billy Packer from his retirement home. I was ready to turn off the television and start reading...I was even, dare I say, bored.
Tiger Woods had faded, as had Graeme McDowell, Ernie Els was playing solid, but couldn't make a putt to save his life and Brandt Snedeker remembered that he wasn't elite. The coronation was on and Adam Scott was finally ready to win his first Major and it was well deserved. He played the most consistent golf of anyone this weekend and even helped me reach #1 overall in ESPN's Best Ball Fantasy Golf Challenge for about 30 minutes (I finished T-102).
I guess Scott let himself think about hoisting the Claret Jug, because it all went wrong from then on. He bogeyed the 15th, 3 putted for a bogey on the relatively easy 16th. His lead was two over Els. Up ahead on the 18th green, Ernie Els finally made a birdie putt to cut the lead to 1. Adam Scott looked shaken. He knew what was going on, he saw it slipping away. He bogeyed the 17th and there was a two way tie at the top. Els and Scott, who could have seen this coming??
Adam Scott shanked his drive on the 18th right into one of the 205 sand traps scattered around the course. His only option was to hit the ball sideways for his 2nd shot. He stood 150 yards away needed to get up and down to force a playoff. 30 minutes earlier he the announcers stated 'he had 1 had on the trophy.' Adam Scott drilled an iron shot to within 7 feet and he looked to have stopped the free fall. One putt to start all over, 7 feet to stay in line for that 1st ever Major Championship. He missed and fell to his knees. It was tough to watch. If you have ever competed in a sport (individual or team) you've been there. Hopefully millions of people weren't watching at the time, though.
Congrats to Ernie Els who played the best on Sunday, but you have to feel for Adam Scott, it was a very painful 30 minutes to erase 3 1/2 days of great golf.
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If you didn't notice, I omitted the Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony from this weekend's to do list. In all honesty I completely forgot. Sorry if Barry Larkin and the late Ron Santo just didn't do it for me. It's going to be a rough decade ahead for the Hall of Fame committee as they try to find worth entrants while ignoring a near generation full of stars who got caught up in the era of PED's. Some are downright guilty, some are whispered to have used them and some just played at the wrong time with the wrong people.
Do I think that the best of the best during this era should get in? Yes I do. With an asterisk. Mention that they played during this time and whether they ever admitted to using PED's. Don't say that they were hinted to doing so, that they were investigated or accused, but only if they came clean. We'll never know the true extent of usage or how well it helped extend careers and improve statistics, but it obviously affected the skill level of the elite athletes in the game.
Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens were Hall of Fame worthy long before the mid-to-late 90's. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were not. It will be very dicey over the next 10 years to get any big name player into Cooperstown and that is going to hurt the overall popularity of the Hall of Fame. To not see any players that I grew up watching get in is going to be tough to swallow. I don't know how I'll explain to the next generation.
Sorry son, the 1990's didn't exist. Yeah that'll do.
Friday, July 20, 2012
Pocket Pair 7/20/12
It's that time of the week again. Your handy dandy viewing guide for all that is sports (and more!). I was able to get out to two Washington Nationals games this week which was fun and I highly suggest getting out to see your favorite team this summer. There is nothing better than sitting back and relaxing at the old ball game.
Things are just beginning to ramp up in the sports world. There aren't too many slow weekends left so make sure you get that honey-do list done, hit up the craft fairs, take the kids to the amusement park go visit the relatives and whatever else will buy you an uninterrupted fall and winter in the man cave.
Here's what I suggest you watch this weekend:
10: The Dark Knight Rises
Yes I realize this isn't technically a sport. There's a scene of a stadium blowing up though I believe. I just watched The Dark Knight last night to prepare myself and even though I may not make it to see the new one this weekend I will certainly get out there as soon as possible. Christopher Nolan has taken the campy, often over the top Batman series to a much seedier, darker world and I for one thoroughly enjoy the change of pace. Heath Ledger one upped Jack Nicholson as The Joker and Christian Bale has been excellent save for his way too deep voice. I am all set to block out a 3 hour time frame to wrap up this trilogy.
9: San Francisco Giants at Philadelphia Phillies
The Phillies have one foot in the grave for the season. At 10 games out from the wild card, it is imperative that they string together some wins over the next ten days...like 9 of 10 at worst. The Giants on the other hand are playing solid, yet unspectacular baseball and find themselves on top in the N.L. West. Friday's starter Tim Lincecum is not the reason why. Outside of two good starts against the AAAA caliber Houston Astros and the then injury riddled LA Dodgers he has been downright horrid. Saturday features a spectacular battle between Matt Cain and Cole Hamels while Sunday is a turn back the clock day for Athletics fans as Barry Zito and Joe Blanton lock horns.
8: Miami Marlins at Pittsburgh Pirates
Two words: Andrew McCutchen. If you had McCutchen as the NL MVP front runner on July 20th, pat yourself on the back. He is flat out carrying the Pirates and worth the price of admission alone. Not to mention PNC Park is gorgeous. If you can go there live, do it. If you have to settle for watching it in stunning, crystal clear HD on television, that is okay too. If that doesn't do it, just watch to see what foolish thing Ozzie Guillen will do this weekend.
7: New York Yankees at Oakland Athletics
If you read this you are well aware of two things: I love the Oakland Athletics and hate, despise, loathe, resent and abhor the New York Yankees. Right now both teams are playing very well. Even so, the Athletics need 3 wins out of the four games to keep their momentum going and convince themselves (and management) that something special might be happening in the Bay Area (no I'm not talking about you Giants fans). The Yankees are virtual locks for the playoffs as they are already counting their magic number in the A.L. East. Let the Athletics have some fun this weekend Yankees, you can just beat them in the playoffs.
6. USA Men's Basketball vs Argentina
This might be the stiffest test for the USA leading up the the Olympics. Of course it may mean that they only win by 20 or 25 rather than 30+. The only real talk about this version of the 'Dream Team' is whether they are good enough to take on the 1992 team in a virtual match up. It would certainly be interesting especially if you add components like Derrick Rose, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh and Dwight Howard. That debate is for another day, but sit back and enjoy LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant do work this weekend.
5. Los Angeles Dodgers at New York Mets
The Dodgers are getting healthy just in time and the Mets are falling apart at just the wrong time. Even though New York salvaged the finale on Thursday against Washington, it doesn't erase the six game losing streak that the win snapped. Matt Kemp homered, Clayton Kershaw pitched well and Los Angeles might just be turning a corner just as San Francisco was starting to build a cushion out west. Along with the return of Andre Either and rumors of the impending acquisition of Ryan Dempster from Chicago this weekend could be the beginning of another hot stretch for the Dodgers. Without a series win this weekend, the Mets could turn into sellers just as fast as they were considered buyers.
4. Chicago White Sox at Detroit Tigers
There are three divisional series this weekend with the first place team taking on the second place team. This one is the only one where I feel the second place team is the heavy favorite. Not only are they at home, the hotter of the two teams right now, but I think they are the better of the two teams as well. The Tigers have their ace, Justin Verlander, going on Friday. The White Sox counter with their ace, Chris Sale, on Saturday. Sunday there should be 1000 runs or so scored. This division is only separated by 1.5 games and my guess is it will be closer on Monday.
3. Atlanta Braves at Washington Nationals
4 games in 3 days. A 3.5 game spread between the 1st place Nationals and 2nd place Braves. Stephen Strasburg on Friday. A doubleheader on Saturday. What more do you want?? I can't think of much more fun way to spend a weekend in the nations capital. To think that its possible although highly unlikely that the Nationals could be sitting with a 7.5 game lead in late July is unfathomable. Of course they could also be out of first place by the time you go back to work on Monday and fans will probably shift their focus to RGIII and the Redskins real quick.
2. Texas Rangers at Los Angeles Angels
The last of the 1 vs 2 divisional match ups might have the largest gap between the two teams, but it is the one I think will be the most heated. The Angels have Weaver, Santana and Haren lined up as they try to inch closer to the Rangers for the division crown. The Rangers will counter with Holland, Darvish and Harrison and this should make for a great weekend of pitching against two of the best offenses in the league. The two teams have finished first each of the last five years and this year should be no different. They also get the Sunday night nationally televised game on ESPN and the world will get to watch Trout and Trumbo up close and personal.
1. The British Open
My stance on Majors in golf is no secret. I'm a sucker for tough courses making the worlds best golfers look like amateurs. The British Open (of The Open if you will) is different because of the added element of the weather. You never know what the conditions will be like from hour to hour, much less day to day. The Americans are looking to win their 4th consecutive major and overall there have been 15 consecutive different winners of Majors. Oh and Tiger Woods is tied for 6th after the first round. It should be fun and if I'm not playing baseball on Sunday, I'll be glued to the final 18 holes.
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Yesterday I finally got to see Gio Gonzalez pitch live and in person. I never saw him for the Athletics (shame on me) but finally saw him here in DC. It didn't go so well. It was about 400 degrees in Washington and the early start (12:30) always sucks for a pitcher. It was obvious that Gonzalez struggled with his command as when he missed out of the zone he walked a batter and when he missed in the zone he gave up home runs. It was his shortest outing of the year and that coupled with another strong outing by Mets starter R.A. Dickey, it made for a long, sweaty day for Nationals fans.
While I haven't been to too many of the new ballparks I do see plenty of them on television and from what I see my rankings for top five parks are:
1: Camden Yards (Baltimore)
2: PNC Park (Pittsburgh)
3: AT&T Park (San Francisco)
4: Wrigley Field (Chicago)
5. Nationals Park (Washington)
Honorable mention to Great American Ball Park and Busch Stadium
Nowhere on my list will you ever see the O.co or the Oakland Coliseum or whatever it will be named next season. I've been there once, and it's ugly. Not to mention how staying in that stadium has cost the A's from retaining their young talent over the last decade as well. Please move to San Jose...soon.
Things are just beginning to ramp up in the sports world. There aren't too many slow weekends left so make sure you get that honey-do list done, hit up the craft fairs, take the kids to the amusement park go visit the relatives and whatever else will buy you an uninterrupted fall and winter in the man cave.
Here's what I suggest you watch this weekend:
10: The Dark Knight Rises
Yes I realize this isn't technically a sport. There's a scene of a stadium blowing up though I believe. I just watched The Dark Knight last night to prepare myself and even though I may not make it to see the new one this weekend I will certainly get out there as soon as possible. Christopher Nolan has taken the campy, often over the top Batman series to a much seedier, darker world and I for one thoroughly enjoy the change of pace. Heath Ledger one upped Jack Nicholson as The Joker and Christian Bale has been excellent save for his way too deep voice. I am all set to block out a 3 hour time frame to wrap up this trilogy.
9: San Francisco Giants at Philadelphia Phillies
The Phillies have one foot in the grave for the season. At 10 games out from the wild card, it is imperative that they string together some wins over the next ten days...like 9 of 10 at worst. The Giants on the other hand are playing solid, yet unspectacular baseball and find themselves on top in the N.L. West. Friday's starter Tim Lincecum is not the reason why. Outside of two good starts against the AAAA caliber Houston Astros and the then injury riddled LA Dodgers he has been downright horrid. Saturday features a spectacular battle between Matt Cain and Cole Hamels while Sunday is a turn back the clock day for Athletics fans as Barry Zito and Joe Blanton lock horns.
8: Miami Marlins at Pittsburgh Pirates
Two words: Andrew McCutchen. If you had McCutchen as the NL MVP front runner on July 20th, pat yourself on the back. He is flat out carrying the Pirates and worth the price of admission alone. Not to mention PNC Park is gorgeous. If you can go there live, do it. If you have to settle for watching it in stunning, crystal clear HD on television, that is okay too. If that doesn't do it, just watch to see what foolish thing Ozzie Guillen will do this weekend.
7: New York Yankees at Oakland Athletics
If you read this you are well aware of two things: I love the Oakland Athletics and hate, despise, loathe, resent and abhor the New York Yankees. Right now both teams are playing very well. Even so, the Athletics need 3 wins out of the four games to keep their momentum going and convince themselves (and management) that something special might be happening in the Bay Area (no I'm not talking about you Giants fans). The Yankees are virtual locks for the playoffs as they are already counting their magic number in the A.L. East. Let the Athletics have some fun this weekend Yankees, you can just beat them in the playoffs.
6. USA Men's Basketball vs Argentina
This might be the stiffest test for the USA leading up the the Olympics. Of course it may mean that they only win by 20 or 25 rather than 30+. The only real talk about this version of the 'Dream Team' is whether they are good enough to take on the 1992 team in a virtual match up. It would certainly be interesting especially if you add components like Derrick Rose, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh and Dwight Howard. That debate is for another day, but sit back and enjoy LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant do work this weekend.
5. Los Angeles Dodgers at New York Mets
The Dodgers are getting healthy just in time and the Mets are falling apart at just the wrong time. Even though New York salvaged the finale on Thursday against Washington, it doesn't erase the six game losing streak that the win snapped. Matt Kemp homered, Clayton Kershaw pitched well and Los Angeles might just be turning a corner just as San Francisco was starting to build a cushion out west. Along with the return of Andre Either and rumors of the impending acquisition of Ryan Dempster from Chicago this weekend could be the beginning of another hot stretch for the Dodgers. Without a series win this weekend, the Mets could turn into sellers just as fast as they were considered buyers.
4. Chicago White Sox at Detroit Tigers
There are three divisional series this weekend with the first place team taking on the second place team. This one is the only one where I feel the second place team is the heavy favorite. Not only are they at home, the hotter of the two teams right now, but I think they are the better of the two teams as well. The Tigers have their ace, Justin Verlander, going on Friday. The White Sox counter with their ace, Chris Sale, on Saturday. Sunday there should be 1000 runs or so scored. This division is only separated by 1.5 games and my guess is it will be closer on Monday.
3. Atlanta Braves at Washington Nationals
4 games in 3 days. A 3.5 game spread between the 1st place Nationals and 2nd place Braves. Stephen Strasburg on Friday. A doubleheader on Saturday. What more do you want?? I can't think of much more fun way to spend a weekend in the nations capital. To think that its possible although highly unlikely that the Nationals could be sitting with a 7.5 game lead in late July is unfathomable. Of course they could also be out of first place by the time you go back to work on Monday and fans will probably shift their focus to RGIII and the Redskins real quick.
2. Texas Rangers at Los Angeles Angels
The last of the 1 vs 2 divisional match ups might have the largest gap between the two teams, but it is the one I think will be the most heated. The Angels have Weaver, Santana and Haren lined up as they try to inch closer to the Rangers for the division crown. The Rangers will counter with Holland, Darvish and Harrison and this should make for a great weekend of pitching against two of the best offenses in the league. The two teams have finished first each of the last five years and this year should be no different. They also get the Sunday night nationally televised game on ESPN and the world will get to watch Trout and Trumbo up close and personal.
1. The British Open
My stance on Majors in golf is no secret. I'm a sucker for tough courses making the worlds best golfers look like amateurs. The British Open (of The Open if you will) is different because of the added element of the weather. You never know what the conditions will be like from hour to hour, much less day to day. The Americans are looking to win their 4th consecutive major and overall there have been 15 consecutive different winners of Majors. Oh and Tiger Woods is tied for 6th after the first round. It should be fun and if I'm not playing baseball on Sunday, I'll be glued to the final 18 holes.
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Yesterday I finally got to see Gio Gonzalez pitch live and in person. I never saw him for the Athletics (shame on me) but finally saw him here in DC. It didn't go so well. It was about 400 degrees in Washington and the early start (12:30) always sucks for a pitcher. It was obvious that Gonzalez struggled with his command as when he missed out of the zone he walked a batter and when he missed in the zone he gave up home runs. It was his shortest outing of the year and that coupled with another strong outing by Mets starter R.A. Dickey, it made for a long, sweaty day for Nationals fans.
While I haven't been to too many of the new ballparks I do see plenty of them on television and from what I see my rankings for top five parks are:
1: Camden Yards (Baltimore)
2: PNC Park (Pittsburgh)
3: AT&T Park (San Francisco)
4: Wrigley Field (Chicago)
5. Nationals Park (Washington)
Honorable mention to Great American Ball Park and Busch Stadium
Nowhere on my list will you ever see the O.co or the Oakland Coliseum or whatever it will be named next season. I've been there once, and it's ugly. Not to mention how staying in that stadium has cost the A's from retaining their young talent over the last decade as well. Please move to San Jose...soon.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Pocket Pair 7/18/12
Yesterday was my brush with fame. Well relatively speaking. In all my years going to baseball games I have never caught a foul ball much less a home run ball. Last night I was a foot away from changing all of that. Look I'm a simple man with simple pleasures in life and catching a home run ball would be quite exciting. I took my mom to the Nationals/Mets game last night and we got front row seats above the scoreboard in right center. Not only did I get to snuggle up to rookie Bryce Harper and Harpers' Homeboys that were one section over in full eye black, but I was in prime position for a ball.
Through 7 innings the Nationals were ahead 1-0 and the game was barely two hours young. I had said to my mom in passing that a game like this usually sees the game get tied up in the 9th and ends up going 15 innings. We had hopes of getting home by 10pm as Met after Met were being set down by Nationals starter Ross Detwiler. When the Nationals tacked on an insurance run in the 8th inning and Tyler Clippard warming up, the game felt all but over. It hadn't been an exciting game by any stretch of the imagination, the temperature was hovering in the low 90's, but a night at the ballpark is still better than a normal night.
Then along game the 9th inning. Everything was about to change and I got this close to crossing off a bucket list item. Let me set the stage. Two on, one out and Jordany Valdespin stepping to the plate as a pinch hitter. He hit one far, he hit one deep...he hit one...RIGHT AT ME!!
*Inner monologue time* Okay Jason, don't screw this us...dammit I should have brought my glove. Don't drop it, you're on television.
This was the scene:
But, alas, the ball drifted just to the right of me and bounced off the finger of some dude who was asking when did the Mets sign Miguel Tejada earlier in the game after seeing Ruben Tejada at the plate. He was having fun. I must say that my beard comes though well on television though.
The Mets now led 3-2 and it was up to the scrappy Nationals to even it up in the 9th. With two outs in the ninth, Danny Espinosa laced a base hit to bring home Ian Desmond and to extra innings we went. I had a shot at that 15 inning game!
The score did not remain deadlocked very long as Josh 'T-HOLE' (as Mets fans were chanting) split the outfield with a go ahead double. Nats fans were bummed, Mets fans were...well you know. In the bottom of the frame, Nationals backup catcher Jhonatan Solano started it off with a hit. Steve Lombardozzi bunted him to second and that brought up Bryce Harper.
My mom had said that Harper hadn't done much tonight, but not after his next swing. He absolutely blistered a ball over the right fielders' head and off the wall for a triple and the game was once again knotted up...this time at 4! THE HARPER!!!!
After two intentional walks and a force out at the plate, the Nationals had the bases loaded and two out when Mets reliever Pedro Beato uncorked a wild pitch allowing Ryan Zimmerman to scamper home with the winning run. It was rather exciting for a July game, but its games like this that will make the games in September and potentially October enthralling.
It was very refreshing to see the team pick up Tyler Clippard who blew only his second save of the season and had been pretty much lights out for them all year.
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Tonight I have a baseball game. 30,000 fans will not be showing up. We should have about 8 fans. I play with the Falls Church News Hounds in the DC Wood 18+ Wooden Bat League. We are the two time defending champs and tonight is our first playoff game in the best of three first round series. We'll be playing the team that we beat in the Finals last year.
That series was close and very intense. This year neither team was nearly as good as both teams lost some key players, but I am expecting some quality baseball this week. Our starting pitcher, Dave Acosta, is a hard throwing (low to mid 80's with ease) lefty. He should be playing in a better league, but I won't complain.
Hopefully this season ends with another one of these:
Through 7 innings the Nationals were ahead 1-0 and the game was barely two hours young. I had said to my mom in passing that a game like this usually sees the game get tied up in the 9th and ends up going 15 innings. We had hopes of getting home by 10pm as Met after Met were being set down by Nationals starter Ross Detwiler. When the Nationals tacked on an insurance run in the 8th inning and Tyler Clippard warming up, the game felt all but over. It hadn't been an exciting game by any stretch of the imagination, the temperature was hovering in the low 90's, but a night at the ballpark is still better than a normal night.
Then along game the 9th inning. Everything was about to change and I got this close to crossing off a bucket list item. Let me set the stage. Two on, one out and Jordany Valdespin stepping to the plate as a pinch hitter. He hit one far, he hit one deep...he hit one...RIGHT AT ME!!
*Inner monologue time* Okay Jason, don't screw this us...dammit I should have brought my glove. Don't drop it, you're on television.
This was the scene:
But, alas, the ball drifted just to the right of me and bounced off the finger of some dude who was asking when did the Mets sign Miguel Tejada earlier in the game after seeing Ruben Tejada at the plate. He was having fun. I must say that my beard comes though well on television though.
The Mets now led 3-2 and it was up to the scrappy Nationals to even it up in the 9th. With two outs in the ninth, Danny Espinosa laced a base hit to bring home Ian Desmond and to extra innings we went. I had a shot at that 15 inning game!
The score did not remain deadlocked very long as Josh 'T-HOLE' (as Mets fans were chanting) split the outfield with a go ahead double. Nats fans were bummed, Mets fans were...well you know. In the bottom of the frame, Nationals backup catcher Jhonatan Solano started it off with a hit. Steve Lombardozzi bunted him to second and that brought up Bryce Harper.
My mom had said that Harper hadn't done much tonight, but not after his next swing. He absolutely blistered a ball over the right fielders' head and off the wall for a triple and the game was once again knotted up...this time at 4! THE HARPER!!!!
After two intentional walks and a force out at the plate, the Nationals had the bases loaded and two out when Mets reliever Pedro Beato uncorked a wild pitch allowing Ryan Zimmerman to scamper home with the winning run. It was rather exciting for a July game, but its games like this that will make the games in September and potentially October enthralling.
It was very refreshing to see the team pick up Tyler Clippard who blew only his second save of the season and had been pretty much lights out for them all year.
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Tonight I have a baseball game. 30,000 fans will not be showing up. We should have about 8 fans. I play with the Falls Church News Hounds in the DC Wood 18+ Wooden Bat League. We are the two time defending champs and tonight is our first playoff game in the best of three first round series. We'll be playing the team that we beat in the Finals last year.
That series was close and very intense. This year neither team was nearly as good as both teams lost some key players, but I am expecting some quality baseball this week. Our starting pitcher, Dave Acosta, is a hard throwing (low to mid 80's with ease) lefty. He should be playing in a better league, but I won't complain.
Hopefully this season ends with another one of these:
Monday, July 16, 2012
Pocket Pair 7/16/12
This was a fun weekend for baseball fans. The season is now headed toward the playoffs, we are two weeks away from the trade deadline and teams are on a 14 day sprint to establish themselves as playoff contenders or pretenders. I highlighted five series from this weekend that were very important for this time of year, so lets take a look at them and see what transpired.
5. Pittsburgh Pirates at Milwaukee Brewers
This was an entertaining series where both teams held a lead in each of the three games. The Brewers took two of three despite Andrew McCutchen blistering the ball by going 7-12 with 3 runs scored and 4 RBI while hitting a home run in each of the three games. Friday nights pitching match up of McDonald vs Greinke fizzled out, but Milwaukee starter Yovani Gallardo dominated on Sunday striking out 14 Pirates while walking none in 7 near perfect innings. Each team seems to be short a piece or two for contending. The Pirates need another bat to protect McCutchen while the Brewers have the Leagues third worst bullpen ERA.
4. Detroit Tigers at Baltimore Orioles
I think we might be seeing the beginning of the end for the Orioles strong run this year. What little pitching depth they had in the rotation took yet another hit with Jason Hammel exiting his start early with an injured knee. Baltimore is now 3-4 starters short of a true rotation and they are running out of steam fast. The Tigers on the other hand are finally playing like they should have from day one. By winning 2 of 3 this weekend (only losing in 13 innings) they have vaulted the Cleveland Indians into second place and now can squarely shift their focus to the Chicago White Sox. Justin Verlander erased his memory from his disastrous All-Star game appearance to dominate the Orioles striking out eight over 8 scoreless innings Sunday.
3. St. Louis Cardinals at Cincinnati Reds
On Friday I wrote: "Both teams are just waiting to pounce on the the Pirates at the first sign of trouble and a series win this weekend could find that team in first place by Monday." Apparently the Reds were paying attention as they swept away their bitter rivals thanks in large part to a couple of ex-Cardinals and a Cuban missile. Ryan Ludwick had the game winning hit on Saturday and Scott Rolen did the same on Sunday to help vault Cincinnati into first place in the N.L. Central. Aroldis Chapman struck out 8 batters in his 3 innings of work this weekend touching 100 MPH on the final pitch of the series. The Cardinals did get Lance Berkman back from injury, but this weekend belonged to the Reds.
2. Washington Nationals at Miami Marlins
As a rare wraparound series, the Nationals and Marlins still have one game to play tonight to finish their 4 game set, but the drama is already boiling over. Ozzie Guillen couldn't resist getting himself into the spotlight by challenging the amount of pine tar on Bryce Harpers' bat yesterday. He unleashed a foul-mouthed tirade towards the 19 year old overshadowing another dominant performance by Stephen Strasburg. The Nationals were also able to finally solve Josh Johnson, giving him a loss for the first time in franchise history. Mark Buehrle out dueled Gio Gonzalez on Saturday to give the fish a chance at splitting the series tonight. There have been 13 total runs scored in the series so far, but we may see that many tonight with the unpredictable entities that are Carlos Zambrano and Edwin Jackson.
1. LA Angels of Anaheim at New York Yankees
The trio of Mike Trout, Albert Pujols and Mark Trumbo combined for 16 hits for the Angels while Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira and Robinson Cano had 12 hits for the Yankees. There is so much star power up and the down the rosters for these teams that fans of baseball would be treated to excellent post season play if they met up in October. Angels reliever Scott Downs had given up only 1 ER this season until the Yankees roughed him up for 4 on Friday night for the loss and he nearly blew a 3 run ninth inning lead having to be relieved with the bases loaded. At this point in the season I think both teams are virtual locks to play in the postseason although the Angels will have to climb past the Rangers to avoid a 1 game play-in game.
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I didn't highlight the series between the Oakland Athletics and the Minnesota Twins for a reason. I didn't know the reason would be that my beloved A's would trounce the home team by hitting moon shots after moon shots. They hit 9 home runs in the series and none of them were cheap shots. Target field is not the easiest place to hit a home run in, but Oakland made it look like Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. The Athletics are one of the hottest teams in baseball winning 9 of their last 10 games climbing to a season high 3 games over .500. This could all come crashing down this week as they have six games at home against the Rangers and Yankees.
The two series should be a battle of the immovable object (Oakland's pitching in the Coliseum at a 2.81 ERA) vs the unstoppable force (the hitting of Texas and New York, ranked 1&2 in road OPS). I never thought this years version of the Athletics would contend for any sort of playoff spot, but they sit only 0.5 game out of the newly minted 2nd Wild Card spot.
If the Athletics can somehow manage a 4-2 record this week I will be in full 'buy' mode for this team making a run this season even if they still unload Brandon McCarthy and Bartolo Colon for more young prospects. If only they could get a new stadium and keep some of this young talent for more than a three year stretch.
Friday, July 13, 2012
Pocket Pair 7/13/12
Unless you are a baseball fan, this is the worst time of the year for a sports fan. Football is a couple of a weeks away from being relevant. They Olympics will start around then as well. The NHL is headed for labor issues that could cause the start of the season to be in jeopardy. The NBA can't seem to eliminate the Dwight Howard saga from its headlines and looks to be under the control of the Miami Heat for the foreseeable future. College football still is over a month away from beginning so that leads us back to baseball.
"The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again." -James Earl Jones in Field of Dreams
There is really only baseball to watch this weekend, save for seeing if Steve Stricker can win his 4th consecutive John Deere Classic. I'll give you the top 5 series to watch and there should be some good ones as the playoff chase officially begins now that the All-Star Game is behind us.
5. Pittsburgh Pirates at Milwaukee Brewers
Right now the Brewers are in sellers mode. Pitcher Zack Greinke will be making his 3rd consecutive start for Milwaukee tonight which is something baseball hasn't seen since Red Faber did this for the Chicago White Sox back in 1917. He needs to get the Brewers a win against first place Pittsburgh to get them off on the right foot and try to salvage a so far sub-par season. On the other side Pittsburgh sits in rarefied air alone in first place at the midway point of the season. Just being above .500 is something the good people of the Steel City aren't used to with their baseball team. I can only assume there is a lot of nervous confidence in Pittsburgh who are expecting the best, but fearing the worst. A winning series against the Brewers would really help, but if they stumble out of the gates, it could mark the beginning of the end for their dream season.
4. Detroit Tigers at Baltimore Orioles
The American League version of the series above is taking place in Charm City. The Orioles are hanging tough in a tightly contested Wild Card race. The Tigers who were expected to run away and hide in the Central have muddled around average all season long and currently sit 3rd in a very underwhelming division. I would say that Baltimore needs a better showing this weekend than Detroit, but the longer Detroit plays average baseball, the more confidence they will feed the Indians and White Sox. Without a solid start to the second half, the Orioles might not be buyers and aim for pitching help like Greinke or Cole Hamels, but rather be sellers and continue to build upon their successes for next season.
3. St. Louis Cardinals at Cincinnati Reds
This series is usually fun, not matter the time of year. It lost a little luster when Tony LaRussa retired because of the built up animosity between him and Dusty Baker, but I still can foresee some post 4th of July fireworks. Both teams are just waiting to pounce on the the Pirates at the first sign of trouble and a series win this weekend could find that team in first place by Monday. Tonight has two pitchers who didn't pitch for their respective team last season in Adam Wainwright and Mat Latos. Wainwright who missed last season due to injury has been consistently inconsistent this year alternating wins and losses in his last seven decisions. Latos was brought over from San Diego and hasn't lost a decision, while lowering his ERA over 4 points, since April 18th when he was pummeled by the Cardinals.
2. Washington Nationals at Miami Marlins
When the Nationals were last in Miami they were flying high coming off a series sweep in Atlanta and then were promptly swept away by the Marlins. Washington has never fared well against the fighting fish whether in Miami or in D.C.. Josh Johnson downright owns the Nationals has he has gone 8-0 in 16 career starts against them. I guess its only fitting that Jordan Zimmermann will be toeing the slab for Washington tonight as he is famous (infamous??) for not getting any run support. That will certainly not change tonight...first one to score wins. Miami is without slugger Giancarlo Stanton for the next month and might be looking to unload some of their high priced, not performing talent come trade deadline time if things don't turn around quickly. The Nationals will continue to play hard and ignore the elephant in the room of the innings limit of Stephen Strasburg for as long as they can. With 21 of their next 25 games against the N.L. East they had better stay focused on issues that they can control.
1. L.A. Angels of Anaheim via Disneyland off the PCH at New York Yankees
When the regular season is all said and done, I feel that these two teams will be the best in the American League (apologies to Texas). The Yankees are already there because they can hit like no other team and are built to hit home runs in their bandbox of a stadium. The have pitched well enough through injuries to keep their scores from looking like a beer league softball game, but the key to their success is hitting the long ball. The Angels after a wretchedly horrid start have hit their stride with a jolt of energy from rookie phenom Mike Trout. Along with Mark Trumbo's power and Albert Pujols returning to normal, the Angels can match the Yankees in hitting. The difference lies on the mound where the Angels are top 9 in the Majors in four top pitching categories (ERA, Quality starts, WHIP and BAA) while the Yankees top out at #9 in one category while they average out to 16th best in the Majors (7th for the Angels). The axiom has always been, good pitching will be good hitting, and I think the Angels can do that when healthy.
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Today is Friday the 13th, and as a Jason I always enjoy it. It reminds me of the jokes growing up when the Friday the 13th movies were popular about me being a serial killer. It's a great time of year to go back and watch a couple of the slasher movies that made my name coincide with the date.
The first couple are good and then it starts to get silly, but its all fun and games until you get a machete through your spine. I always preferred the Halloween series with comedian Michael Myers who was great long before the Austin Powers series....j/k folks. It's summer, the news is slow and I'm trying to have fun.
I suggest camping out this weekend, and use your newfangled technology to stream a slasher movie to your tent while you cuddle with your special someone and I dare you not to get scared.
Enjoy the weekend and don't forget to look under your bed before laying down to sleep.
"The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again." -James Earl Jones in Field of Dreams
There is really only baseball to watch this weekend, save for seeing if Steve Stricker can win his 4th consecutive John Deere Classic. I'll give you the top 5 series to watch and there should be some good ones as the playoff chase officially begins now that the All-Star Game is behind us.
5. Pittsburgh Pirates at Milwaukee Brewers
Right now the Brewers are in sellers mode. Pitcher Zack Greinke will be making his 3rd consecutive start for Milwaukee tonight which is something baseball hasn't seen since Red Faber did this for the Chicago White Sox back in 1917. He needs to get the Brewers a win against first place Pittsburgh to get them off on the right foot and try to salvage a so far sub-par season. On the other side Pittsburgh sits in rarefied air alone in first place at the midway point of the season. Just being above .500 is something the good people of the Steel City aren't used to with their baseball team. I can only assume there is a lot of nervous confidence in Pittsburgh who are expecting the best, but fearing the worst. A winning series against the Brewers would really help, but if they stumble out of the gates, it could mark the beginning of the end for their dream season.
4. Detroit Tigers at Baltimore Orioles
The American League version of the series above is taking place in Charm City. The Orioles are hanging tough in a tightly contested Wild Card race. The Tigers who were expected to run away and hide in the Central have muddled around average all season long and currently sit 3rd in a very underwhelming division. I would say that Baltimore needs a better showing this weekend than Detroit, but the longer Detroit plays average baseball, the more confidence they will feed the Indians and White Sox. Without a solid start to the second half, the Orioles might not be buyers and aim for pitching help like Greinke or Cole Hamels, but rather be sellers and continue to build upon their successes for next season.
3. St. Louis Cardinals at Cincinnati Reds
This series is usually fun, not matter the time of year. It lost a little luster when Tony LaRussa retired because of the built up animosity between him and Dusty Baker, but I still can foresee some post 4th of July fireworks. Both teams are just waiting to pounce on the the Pirates at the first sign of trouble and a series win this weekend could find that team in first place by Monday. Tonight has two pitchers who didn't pitch for their respective team last season in Adam Wainwright and Mat Latos. Wainwright who missed last season due to injury has been consistently inconsistent this year alternating wins and losses in his last seven decisions. Latos was brought over from San Diego and hasn't lost a decision, while lowering his ERA over 4 points, since April 18th when he was pummeled by the Cardinals.
2. Washington Nationals at Miami Marlins
When the Nationals were last in Miami they were flying high coming off a series sweep in Atlanta and then were promptly swept away by the Marlins. Washington has never fared well against the fighting fish whether in Miami or in D.C.. Josh Johnson downright owns the Nationals has he has gone 8-0 in 16 career starts against them. I guess its only fitting that Jordan Zimmermann will be toeing the slab for Washington tonight as he is famous (infamous??) for not getting any run support. That will certainly not change tonight...first one to score wins. Miami is without slugger Giancarlo Stanton for the next month and might be looking to unload some of their high priced, not performing talent come trade deadline time if things don't turn around quickly. The Nationals will continue to play hard and ignore the elephant in the room of the innings limit of Stephen Strasburg for as long as they can. With 21 of their next 25 games against the N.L. East they had better stay focused on issues that they can control.
1. L.A. Angels of Anaheim via Disneyland off the PCH at New York Yankees
When the regular season is all said and done, I feel that these two teams will be the best in the American League (apologies to Texas). The Yankees are already there because they can hit like no other team and are built to hit home runs in their bandbox of a stadium. The have pitched well enough through injuries to keep their scores from looking like a beer league softball game, but the key to their success is hitting the long ball. The Angels after a wretchedly horrid start have hit their stride with a jolt of energy from rookie phenom Mike Trout. Along with Mark Trumbo's power and Albert Pujols returning to normal, the Angels can match the Yankees in hitting. The difference lies on the mound where the Angels are top 9 in the Majors in four top pitching categories (ERA, Quality starts, WHIP and BAA) while the Yankees top out at #9 in one category while they average out to 16th best in the Majors (7th for the Angels). The axiom has always been, good pitching will be good hitting, and I think the Angels can do that when healthy.
---------------------------------------
Today is Friday the 13th, and as a Jason I always enjoy it. It reminds me of the jokes growing up when the Friday the 13th movies were popular about me being a serial killer. It's a great time of year to go back and watch a couple of the slasher movies that made my name coincide with the date.
The first couple are good and then it starts to get silly, but its all fun and games until you get a machete through your spine. I always preferred the Halloween series with comedian Michael Myers who was great long before the Austin Powers series....j/k folks. It's summer, the news is slow and I'm trying to have fun.
I suggest camping out this weekend, and use your newfangled technology to stream a slasher movie to your tent while you cuddle with your special someone and I dare you not to get scared.
Enjoy the weekend and don't forget to look under your bed before laying down to sleep.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Fantasy Football Guidelines for 2012
It's summer time and while some of us are deep into Fantasy Baseball, the majority of sports fans are quietly salivating at the opening of mini camps and the thoughts of Fantasy Football being right around the corner. For 13-17 weeks fans throughout the world get to live vicariously through their favorite players while competing for prizes (monetary, pride, etc.) against friends, coworkers and family. Where else (outside of Vegas) can a coaches decision to punt rather than attempting a 52 yard field affect a game between two people living in the middle of Kentucky? Who else yells at their television screen "Throw it to Welker...to WELKER" when the Patriots are inside the 5 yard line and then chucks their remote clear across the room when Rob Gronkowski hauls in his 3rd touchdown of the afternoon? Not to mention a Redskins fan being forced to cheer when Eli Manning hits Hakeem Nicks on a 60 yard touchdown because Nicks is on your team. Some people cannot separate the emotions between cheering for their favorite team and for their fantasy team so they choose not to play. Being a Redskins fan, the only joy I have gotten from football in the last 20 years has been playing Fantasy Football where I must admit I have been somewhat successful.
I've been running a league since the 1998-99 season and in those 14 years that league has grown from 8 teams to 14 teams and we even did 16 teams for two years. I have won 4 Championships including three of the last five. There is no secret to my success, but I can tell you that I do my research before the draft, I pay attention during the season and I'm always willing to make a trade. If you are sitting in your draft and a fellow competitor drafts a player and your first thought is "Who is that guy" one of you two shouldn't be playing. If the player is this year hot sleeper or a rookie with the chance of starting and you didn't know them, you didn't do enough research. If it was a kicker on the Jaguars and its only the 8th round feel free to laugh at him and pat yourself on the back for not giving a damn about kickers.
I keep referring to research and by that here's what I do year in and year out:
1) Learn the League
Get to know each teams roster and most importantly the depth charts. Who is the starting running back and his backup? Does that team utilize a 3rd down back? Who are the starting Wide Receivers? The slot guy? Are they a 1 or 2 TE set team?
2) Pay attention to off season movement of players
Last season I loaded up on Ray Rice in all of my leagues where I could get him and traded for him when I couldn't. For the 2011 season the Baltimore Ravens made two transactions that caught my attention: they acquired fullback Vonta Leach and let Willis McGahee walk to Denver. What does that mean for Rice you ask? Ray Rice isn't the biggest running back in the NFL and having a reigning Pro Bowl blocker could only help. In previous seasons Ray Rice would get a few touches inside the 10 yard line per game, but mainly he would be replaced by backup Willis McGahee. In the two seasons where the overlapped with Rice as the starter, McGahee had 20 touchdowns (17 on the ground) while Rice had only 14 (12 on the ground). Last season alone Ray Rice had 15 touchdowns (12 on the ground). Vonta Leach went to another Pro Bowl as did Rice and fantasy owners saw him lead all other running backs in ESPN standard scoring fantasy leagues.
3) Learn offensive coordinator/head coach tendencies
Equally as important as player skill is how they are used on game day. The best wide receiver in the league is only as good as the passes that are thrown his way. Running backs don't score if they don't get the ball. For years Mike Martz was famous for throwing the ball at all costs. Just as famous to those who paid attention was how he rarely relied on a tight end. Name me a good fantasy tight end under a Martz system? The exact opposite of Martz is Norv Turner. Obviously he has had elite talents like Jay Novacek and Antonio Gates at his disposal, but it is understanding how teams will try to use their weapons that is the key to drafting properly.
4) Mock Drafts
I can't tell you how helpful doing the proper mock drafts can be. Finding a website that does mock drafts that best mirror your own fantasy league's scoring system is important. If you already know your draft position that is an added bonus, but if not its important to see who is being draft when. Every league is different, every draft is different. Some leagues will have 4-5 quarterbacks drafted early, some will have 9 of the first 10 picks be running backs. Does your league use three wide receivers and a flex? How does that affect the depth of that position? If you have targeted a sleeper pick or a rookie you can track when he is being drafted and how it fluctuates on a weekly basis. There is so much you can learn from not only participating in a mock draft, but looking at results of previous drafts to get a gauge of what other people would do with your draft pick. It is not an exact science, but its a good way to take the pulse of the fantasy world and how they view the expectations of players for the upcoming season.
5) Read projections from as many sources as possible
Again it is important to know your own leagues rules and scoring systems before paying heed to this one. Everybody (including me) will have an opinion on who will be a sleeper, a stud and a bust in the upcoming season. Some of us will be right and some of you will be wrong. It's always interesting to see how opinions vary from player to player and team to team. When it comes down to drafting a player, your decision will always be the most important one, but it doesn't hurt to have as much help as you can when making that important pick.
I will leave it up to you, the reader, to find the websites that are good to use. I still pick up one magazine each year even though they are, for the most part, outdated because I love flipping through pages during trips to the 'office'. Get studying, start formulating a draft strategy and get ready to dominate your league.
I've been running a league since the 1998-99 season and in those 14 years that league has grown from 8 teams to 14 teams and we even did 16 teams for two years. I have won 4 Championships including three of the last five. There is no secret to my success, but I can tell you that I do my research before the draft, I pay attention during the season and I'm always willing to make a trade. If you are sitting in your draft and a fellow competitor drafts a player and your first thought is "Who is that guy" one of you two shouldn't be playing. If the player is this year hot sleeper or a rookie with the chance of starting and you didn't know them, you didn't do enough research. If it was a kicker on the Jaguars and its only the 8th round feel free to laugh at him and pat yourself on the back for not giving a damn about kickers.
I keep referring to research and by that here's what I do year in and year out:
1) Learn the League
Get to know each teams roster and most importantly the depth charts. Who is the starting running back and his backup? Does that team utilize a 3rd down back? Who are the starting Wide Receivers? The slot guy? Are they a 1 or 2 TE set team?
2) Pay attention to off season movement of players
Last season I loaded up on Ray Rice in all of my leagues where I could get him and traded for him when I couldn't. For the 2011 season the Baltimore Ravens made two transactions that caught my attention: they acquired fullback Vonta Leach and let Willis McGahee walk to Denver. What does that mean for Rice you ask? Ray Rice isn't the biggest running back in the NFL and having a reigning Pro Bowl blocker could only help. In previous seasons Ray Rice would get a few touches inside the 10 yard line per game, but mainly he would be replaced by backup Willis McGahee. In the two seasons where the overlapped with Rice as the starter, McGahee had 20 touchdowns (17 on the ground) while Rice had only 14 (12 on the ground). Last season alone Ray Rice had 15 touchdowns (12 on the ground). Vonta Leach went to another Pro Bowl as did Rice and fantasy owners saw him lead all other running backs in ESPN standard scoring fantasy leagues.
3) Learn offensive coordinator/head coach tendencies
Equally as important as player skill is how they are used on game day. The best wide receiver in the league is only as good as the passes that are thrown his way. Running backs don't score if they don't get the ball. For years Mike Martz was famous for throwing the ball at all costs. Just as famous to those who paid attention was how he rarely relied on a tight end. Name me a good fantasy tight end under a Martz system? The exact opposite of Martz is Norv Turner. Obviously he has had elite talents like Jay Novacek and Antonio Gates at his disposal, but it is understanding how teams will try to use their weapons that is the key to drafting properly.
4) Mock Drafts
I can't tell you how helpful doing the proper mock drafts can be. Finding a website that does mock drafts that best mirror your own fantasy league's scoring system is important. If you already know your draft position that is an added bonus, but if not its important to see who is being draft when. Every league is different, every draft is different. Some leagues will have 4-5 quarterbacks drafted early, some will have 9 of the first 10 picks be running backs. Does your league use three wide receivers and a flex? How does that affect the depth of that position? If you have targeted a sleeper pick or a rookie you can track when he is being drafted and how it fluctuates on a weekly basis. There is so much you can learn from not only participating in a mock draft, but looking at results of previous drafts to get a gauge of what other people would do with your draft pick. It is not an exact science, but its a good way to take the pulse of the fantasy world and how they view the expectations of players for the upcoming season.
5) Read projections from as many sources as possible
Again it is important to know your own leagues rules and scoring systems before paying heed to this one. Everybody (including me) will have an opinion on who will be a sleeper, a stud and a bust in the upcoming season. Some of us will be right and some of you will be wrong. It's always interesting to see how opinions vary from player to player and team to team. When it comes down to drafting a player, your decision will always be the most important one, but it doesn't hurt to have as much help as you can when making that important pick.
I will leave it up to you, the reader, to find the websites that are good to use. I still pick up one magazine each year even though they are, for the most part, outdated because I love flipping through pages during trips to the 'office'. Get studying, start formulating a draft strategy and get ready to dominate your league.
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